Besides"-- Strether encouraged his fancy's flight--"you showed your inclination in the way you kept her waiting, kept her on purpose to see if she cared enough for you." His companion paid his ingenuity the deference of a pause.

"I didn't keep her waiting.

I came at the hour.

I wouldn't have kept her waiting for the world," the young man honourably declared.
"Better still--then there you are!" And Strether, charmed, held him the faster.

"Even if you didn't do her justice, moreover," he continued, "I should insist on your immediately coming round to it.