He couldn't absolutely not know, for you couldn't absolutely not let him.

It was a CASE then simply, a strong case, as people nowadays called such things,' a case of transformation unsurpassed, and the hope was but in the general law that strong cases were liable to control from without.
Perhaps he, Strether himself, was the only person after all aware of it.

Even Miss Gostrey, with all her science, wouldn't be, would she ?--and he had never seen any one less aware of anything than Waymarsh as he glowered at Chad.

The social sightlessness of his old friend's survey marked for him afresh, and almost in an humiliating way, the inevitable limits of direct aid from this source.

He was not certain, however, of not drawing a shade of compensation from the privilege, as yet untasted, of knowing more about something in particular than Miss Gostrey did.