There were points as to which he had quite made up his mind, and one of these bore precisely on the wisdom of the abruptness to which events had finally committed him, a policy that he was pleased to find not at all shaken as he now looked at his watch and wondered.

He HAD announced himself--six months before; had written out at least that Chad wasn't to be surprised should he see him some day turn up.

Chad had thereupon, in a few words of rather carefully colourless answer, offered him a general welcome; and Strether, ruefully reflecting that he might have understood the warning as a hint to hospitality, a bid for an invitation, had fallen back upon silence as the corrective most to his own taste.

He had asked Mrs.Newsome moreover not to announce him again; he had so distinct an opinion on his attacking his job, should he attack it at all, in his own way.

Not the least of this lady's high merits for him was that he could absolutely rest on her word.