"
But his friend none the less went on. "Do you want Mrs. Newsome--
after such a way of treating you?"
It was a straighter mode of dealing with this lady than they had as
yet--such was their high form--permitted themselves; but it seemed
not wholly for this that he delayed a moment. "I dare say it has
been, after all, the only way she could have imagined."
"And does that make you want her any more?"
"I've tremendously disappointed her," Strether thought it worth
while to mention.
"Of course you have. That's rudimentary; that was plain to us long
ago. But isn't it almost as plain," Maria went on, "that you've
even yet your straight remedy? Really drag him away, as I believe
you still can, and you'd cease to have to count with her
disappointment."
"Ah then," he laughed, "I should have to count with yours!"
But this barely struck her now. "What, in that case, should you
call counting? You haven't come out where you are, I think, to
please ME."
"Oh," he insisted, "that too, you know, has been part of it.
I can't separate--it's all one; and that's perhaps why, as I say,
I don't understand." But he was ready to declare again that this
didn't in the least matter; all the more that, as he affirmed,
he HADn't really as yet "come out.
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