THE    AMBASSADORS
ment, and since they had been in search of the "word" as the
French called it, of that change, little Bilham's announcement—
though so long and so oddly delayed—would serve as well as an-
other. She had assured Strether in fact, after a pause, that the
more she thought of it the more it did serve; and yet her assurance
had not so weighed with him as that, before they parted, he had
not ventured to challenge her sincerity. Didn't she believe the
attachment was virtuous?—he had made sure of her again with
the aid of that question. The tidings he brought her on this second
occasion were moreover such as would help him to make surer still.
She showed at first, none the less, as only amused.
"You say there are two? An attachment to them both then
would, I suppose, almost necessarily be innocent."
Our friend took the point, but he had his clue. " Mayn't he be
still in the stage of not quite knowing which of them, mother or
daughter, he likes best ?"
She gave it more thought. " Oh, it must be the daughter—at his
age."
"Possibly. Yet what do we know," Strether asked, "about hers?
She may be old enough."
"Old enough for what?"
" Why, to marry Chad. That may be, you know, what they want.
And if Chad wants it too, and little Bilham wants it, and even we,
at a pinch, could do with it—that is if she doesn't prevent repatria-
tion—why, it may be plain sailing yet."
It was always the case for him in these counsels that each of his
remarks, as it came, seemed to drop into a deeper well. He had at
all events to wait a moment to hear the slight splash of this one.
" I don't see why if Mr. Newsome wants to marry the young lady,
he hasn't already done it, or hasn't been prepared with some state-
ment to you about it. And if he both wants to marry her and is
on good terms with them, why isn't he ' free ' ?"
Strether, responsively, wondered indeed. " Perhaps the girl her-
self doesn't like him."
" Then why does he speak of them to you as he does?"
Strether's mind echoed the question, but also again met it.
" Perhaps it's with the mother that he's on good terms,"
" As against the daughter ?"
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