I asked you what you had meant by saying, the day you came to see me, just before you left me, that you'd save me.

And you then said--at our friend's--that you'd have really to wait to see, for yourself, what you did mean." "Yes, I asked for time," said Strether.

"And it sounds now, as you put it, like a very ridiculous speech." "Oh!" she murmured--she was full of attenuation.

But she had another thought.

"If it does sound ridiculous why do you deny that you're in trouble ?" "Ah if I were," he replied, "it wouldn't be the trouble of fearing ridicule.