"Who are they then--if it's so grave ?" "It mayn't be grave--it may be gay.

But at any rate it's marked.

Only I don't know," Strether had to confess, "anything about them.

Their name for instance was a thing that, after little Bilham's information, I found it a kind of refreshment not to feel obliged to follow up." "Oh," she returned, "if you think you've got off--!" Her laugh produced in him a momentary gloom.

"I don't think I've got off.