"It IS
rather a business then--what I've let you in for!"
Strether had again a brief pause; which ended in a reply that
seemed to dispose once for all of this element of compunction.
Chad was to treat it, at any rate, so far as they were again
together, as having done so. "I was 'in' when you found me."
"Ah but it was you," the young man laughed, "who found ME."
"I only found you out. It was you who found me in. It was all in
the day's work for them, at all events, that they should come. And
they've greatly enjoyed it," Strether declared.
"Well, I've tried to make them," said Chad.
His companion did himself presently the same justice. "So have I.
I tried even this very morning--while Mrs. Pocock was with me. She
enjoys for instance, almost as much as anything else, not being, as
I've said, afraid of me; and I think I gave her help in that."
Chad took a deeper interest. "Was she very very nasty?"
Strether debated. "Well, she was the most important thing--she was
definite. She was--at last--crystalline. And I felt no remorse.
I saw that they must have come."
"Oh I wanted to see them for myself; so that if it were only for
THAT--!" Chad's own remorse was as small.
This appeared almost all Strether wanted.
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