The devil of the case was that Strether felt it, by the same stroke, as falling straight upon himself.

He had been wondering a minute ago if the boy weren't a Pagan, and he found himself wondering now if he weren't by chance a gentleman.

It didn't in the least, on the spot, spring up helpfully for him that a person couldn't at the same time be both.

There was nothing at this moment in the air to challenge the combination; there was everything to give it on the contrary something of a flourish.

It struck Strether into the bargain as doing something to meet the most difficult of the questions; though perhaps indeed only by substituting another.