Ah but Strether wanted it. "Say it all, say it all."
"Well, at your age, and with what--when all's said and done--
Mother might do for you and be for you."
Chad had said it all, from his natural scruple, only to that
extent; so that Strether after an instant himself took a hand.
"My absence of an assured future. The little I have to show toward
the power to take care of myself. The way, the wonderful way,
she would certainly take care of me. Her fortune, her kindness,
and the constant miracle of her having been disposed to go even so far.
Of course, of course"--he summed it up. "There are those sharp facts."
Chad had meanwhile thought of another still. "And don't you really
care--?"
His friend slowly turned round to him. "Will you go?"
"I'll go if you'll say you now consider I should. You know," he
went on, "I was ready six weeks ago."
"Ah," said Strether, "that was when you didn't know I wasn't!
You're ready at present because you do know it."
"That may be," Chad returned; "but all the same I'm sincere. You
talk about taking the whole thing on your shoulders, but in what
light do you regard me that you think me capable of letting you
pay?" Strether patted his arm, as they stood together against the
parapet, reassuringly--seeming to wish to contend that he HAD the
wherewithal; but it was again round this question of purchase and
price that the young man's sense of fairness continued to hover.
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