He hadn't, it was true, week after week, shown signs of receiving it, but the possibility had been none the less in the air.

What Maria accordingly had had now to take in was that the shock had descended and that he hadn't, all the same, swung back.

He had grown clear, in a flash, on a point long since settled for herself; but no reapproximation to Mrs.Newsome had occurred in consequence.

Madame de Vionnet had by her visit held up the torch to these truths, and what now lingered in poor Maria's face was the somewhat smoky light of the scene between them.

If the light however wasn't, as we have hinted, the glow of joy, the reasons for this also were perhaps discernible to Strether even through the blur cast over them by his natural modesty.