"Isn't your having seen
them for yourself then THE thing, beyond all others, that has come
of their visit?"
Chad looked as if he thought it nice of his old friend to put it
so. "Don't you count it as anything that you're dished--if you ARE
dished? Are you, my dear man, dished?"
It sounded as if he were asking if he had caught cold or hurt his
foot, and Strether for a minute but smoked and smoked. "I want to
see her again. I must see her."
"Of course you must." Then Chad hesitated. "Do you mean--a--Mother
herself?"
"Oh your mother--that will depend."
It was as if Mrs. Newsome had somehow been placed by the words
very far off. Chad however endeavoured in spite of this to reach
the place. "What do you mean it will depend on?"
Strether, for all answer, gave him a longish look. "I was speaking
of Sarah. I must positively--though she quite cast me off--see HER
again. I can't part with her that way."
"Then she was awfully unpleasant?"
Again Strether exhaled. "She was what she had to be. I mean that
from the moment they're not delighted they can only be--well what I
admit she was. We gave them," he went on, "their chance to be
delighted, and they've walked up to it, and looked all round it,
and not taken it.
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