He liked Gloriani, but should never see him again; of that he was sufficiently sure.

Chad accordingly, who was wonderful with both of them, was a kind of link for hopeless fancy, an implication of possibilities--oh if everything had been different! Strether noted at all events that he was thus on terms with illustrious spirits, and also that--yes, distinctly--he hadn't in the least swaggered about it.

Our friend hadn't come there only for this figure of Abel Newsome's son, but that presence threatened to affect the observant mind as positively central.

Gloriani indeed, remembering something and excusing himself, pursued Chad to speak to him, and Strether was left musing on many things.

One of them was the question of whether, since he had been tested, he had passed.
Did the artist drop him from having made out that he wouldn't do?
He really felt just to-day that he might do better than usual.