He was aware by this time of his strange inconsequence: he had shirked the intimacies of the steamer and had muffled the shock of Waymarsh only to find himself forsaken, in this sudden case, both of avoidance and of caution.

He passed, under this unsought protection and before he had so much as gone up to his room, into the garden of the hotel, and at the end of ten minutes had agreed to meet there again, as soon as he should have made himself tidy, the dispenser of such good assurances.

He wanted to look at the town, and they would forthwith look together.

It was almost as if she had been in possession and received him as a guest.

Her acquaintance with the place presented her in a manner as a hostess, and Strether had a rueful glance for the lady in the glass cage.