"Who then ?" Strether--though a little dimly--smiled at him.

"Women--too." "'Two' ?"--Chad stared and laughed.

"Oh I don't believe, for such work, in any more than one! So you're proving too much.

And what IS beastly, at all events," he added, "is losing you." Strether had set himself in motion for departure, but at this he paused.

"Are you afraid ?" "Afraid-- ?" "Of doing wrong.