It would
at least occupy your interval." The thought in fact held her a
moment. "Why doesn't he pay his mother a visit? Even a week, at
this good moment, would do."
"My dear lady," Strether replied--and he had it even to himself
surprisingly ready--"my dear lady, his mother has paid HIM a visit.
Mrs. Newsome has been with him, this month, with an intensity that
I'm sure he has thoroughly felt; he has lavishly entertained her,
and she has let him have her thanks. Do you suggest he shall go
back for more of them?"
Well, she succeeded after a little in shaking it off. "I see.
It's what you don't suggest--what you haven't suggested.
And you know."
"So would you, my dear," he kindly said, "if you had so much as
seen her."
"As seen Mrs. Newsome?"
"No, Sarah--which, both for Chad and for myself, has served all
the purpose."
"And served it in a manner," she responsively mused, "so extraordinary!"
"Well, you see," he partly explained, "what it comes to is that she's
all cold thought--which Sarah could serve to us cold without its
really losing anything. So it is that we know what she thinks of us."
Maria had followed, but she had an arrest. "What I've never made
out, if you come to that, is what you think--I mean you personally--
of HER.
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