It was what he had taken his own stand on, so far as he had taken a stand; and if they were all only going to see nothing he had only wasted his time.

He gave his friend till the very last moment, till they had come into sight of the hotel; and when poor Pocock only continued cheerful and envious and funny he fairly grew to dislike him, to feel him extravagantly common.

If they were ALL going to see nothing!--Strether knew, as this came back to him, that he was also letting Pocock represent for him what Mrs.Newsome wouldn't see.

He went on disliking, in the light of Jim's commonness, to talk to him about that lady; yet just before the cab pulled up he knew the extent of his desire for the real word from Woollett.
"Has Mrs.Newsome at all given way-- ?" "'Given way' ?"--Jim echoed it with the practical derision of his sense of a long past.
"Under the strain, I mean, of hope deferred, of disappointment repeated and thereby intensified." "Oh is she prostrate, you mean ?"--he had his categories in hand.

"Why yes, she's prostrate--just as Sally is.