"
"After all I've done for her?" And he had one of the last flickers
of his occasional mild mirth. "To think that was just what I came
out to prevent!"
She took it up but to reply. "You don't regard him then as safe?"
"I was just going to ask you how in that respect you regard Madame
de Vionnet."
She looked at him a little. "What woman was EVER safe? She told
me," she added--and it was as if at the touch of the connexion--
"of your extraordinary meeting in the country. After that a quoi
se fier?"
"It was, as an accident, in all the possible or impossible chapter,"
Strether conceded, "amazing enough. But still, but still--!"
"But still she didn't mind?"
"She doesn't mind anything."
"Well, then, as you don't either, we may all sink to rest!"
He appeared to agree with her, but he had his reservation.
"I do mind Chad's disappearance."
"Oh you'll get him back. But now you know," she said, "why I went
to Mentone." He had sufficiently let her see that he had by this
time gathered things together, but there was nature in her wish to
make them clearer still. "I didn't want you to put it to me."
"To put it to you--?"
"The question of what you were at last--a week ago--to see for
yourself.
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