14/84 They're very busy people and Mrs.Newsome in particular has a large full life. She's moreover highly nervous--and not at all strong." "You mean she's an American invalid ?" He carefully distinguished. "There's nothing she likes less than to be called one, but she would consent to be one of those things, I think," he laughed, "if it were the only way to be the other." "Consent to be an American in order to be an invalid ?" "No," said Strether, "the other way round. She's at any rate delicate sensitive high-strung. She puts so much of herself into everything--" Ah Maria knew these things! "That she has nothing left for anything else? |