Their only conference
could have been the brief instants in the boat before they confessed
to recognising the spectator on the bank, for they hadn't been alone
together a moment since and must have communicated all in silence.
It was a part of the deep impression for Strether, and not the least
of the deep interest, that they COULD so communicate--that Chad
in particular could let her know he left it to her. He habitually
left things to others, as Strether was so well aware, and it in fact
came over our friend in these meditations that there had been as yet
no such vivid illustration of his famous knowing how to live.
It was as if he had humoured her to the extent of letting her lie
without correction--almost as if, really, he would be coming round
in the morning to set the matter, as between Strether and himself,
right. Of course he couldn't quite come; it was a case in which
a man was obliged to accept the woman's version, even when fantastic;
if she had, with more flurry than she cared to show, elected,
as the phrase was, to represent that they had left Paris that morning,
and with no design but of getting back within the day--if she had
so sized-up, in the Woollett phrase, their necessity, she knew best
her own measure.
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