"I'll save you if I can." II In Chad's lovely home, however, one evening ten days later, he felt himself present at the collapse of the question of Jeanne de Vionnet's shy secret.

He had been dining there in the company of that young lady and her mother, as well as of other persons, and he had gone into the petit salon, at Chad's request, on purpose to talk with her.

The young man had put this to him as a favour--"I should like so awfully to know what you think of her.

It will really be a chance for you," he had said, "to see the jeune fille--I mean the type--as she actually is, and I don't think that, as an observer of manners, it's a thing you ought to miss.

It will be an impression that--whatever else you take--you can carry home with you, where you'll find again so much to compare it with." Strether knew well enough with what Chad wished him to compare it, and though he entirely assented he hadn't yet somehow been so deeply reminded that he was being, as he constantly though mutely expressed it, used.