He was not at this moment absolutely sure that the effect of the morrow's--or rather of the night's--appreciation of the crisis wouldn't be to determine some brief missive.

"Have at last seen him, but oh dear!"-- some temporary relief of that sort seemed to hover before him.

It hovered somehow as preparing them all--yet preparing them for what?
If he might do so more luminously and cheaply he would tick out in four words: "Awfully old--grey hair." To this particular item in Chad's appearance he constantly, during their mute half-hour, reverted; as if so very much more than he could have said had been involved in it.

The most he could have said would have been: "If he's going to make me feel young--!" which indeed, however, carried with it quite enough.

If Strether was to feel young, that is, it would be because Chad was to feel old; and an aged and hoary sinner had been no part of the scheme.
The question of Chadwick's true time of life was, doubtless, what came up quickest after the adjournment of the two, when the play was over, to a cafe in the Avenue de l'Opera.