There was no computing at all what the young man before him would think or feel or say on any subject whatever.

This intelligence Strether had afterwards, to account for his nervousness, reconstituted as he might, just as he had also reconstituted the promptness with which Chad had corrected his uncertainty.

An extraordinarily short time had been required for the correction, and there had ceased to be anything negative in his companion's face and air as soon as it was made.

"Your engagement to my mother has become then what they call here a fait accompli ?"--it had consisted, the determinant touch, in nothing more than that.
Well, that was enough, Strether had felt while his answer hung fire.

He had felt at the same time, however, that nothing could less become him than that it should hang fire too long.