"Don't desire her presence here ?" Strether faced the question, and his answer was the more emphatic.
"Don't put it off, my dear boy, on ME!" "Well--I see what you mean.

I'm sure you'd behave beautifully but you DON'T want to see her.

So I won't play you that trick.' "Ah," Strether declared, "I shouldn't call it a trick.

You've a perfect right, and it would be perfectly straight of you." Then he added in a different tone: "You'd have moreover, in the person of Madame de Vionnet, a very interesting relation prepared for her." Their eyes, on this proposition, continued to meet, but Chad's pleasant and bold, never flinched for a moment.

He got up at last and he said something with which Strether was struck.