THE    AMBASSADORS
the same time to share them with you." He looked at her, on this,
as if some generous irritation—all on his behalf—had suddenly
again flickered in her; and what she next said, indeed, half explained
it. " Don't really be afraid to tell me if what now holds you is the
pleasant prospect of the empty town, with plenty of seats in the
shade, cool drinks, deserted museums, drives to the Bois in the
evening, and our wonderful woman all to yourself." And she kept
it up still more. " The handsomest thing of all, when one makes
it out, would, I dare say, be that Mr. Chad should for a while go off
by himself. It's a pity, from that point of view," she wound up,
" that he does not pay his mother a visit. 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 mo-
ment, 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 extraor-
dinary !"
" Well, you see," he partly explained, " what it comes to is that
she's all cold thought; so that Sarah could serve it to us cold with-
out 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 per-
sonally—of her.    Don't you so much, when all's said, as care a
little?"
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