He took up an oar and, since he was to have the credit of pulling, pulled.
"That will make it all the pleasanter if it so happens that we DO meet," Madame de Vionnet had further observed in reference to Mrs.
Pocock's mention of her initiated state; and she had immediately added that, after all, her hostess couldn't be in need with the good offices of Mr.Strether so close at hand.

"It's he, I gather, who has learnt to know his Paris, and to love it, better than any one ever before in so short a time; so that between him and your brother, when it comes to the point, how can you possibly want for good guidance?
The great thing, Mr.Strether will show you," she smiled, "is just to let one's self go." "Oh I've not let myself go very far," Strether answered, feeling quite as if he had been called upon to hint to Mrs.Pocock how Parisians could talk.

"I'm only afraid of showing I haven't let myself go far enough.

I've taken a good deal of time, but I must quite have had the air of not budging from one spot." He looked at Sarah in a manner that he thought she might take as engaging, and he made, under Madame de Vionnet's protection, as it were, his first personal point.

"What has really happened has been that, all the while, I've done what I came out for." Yet it only at first gave Madame de Vionnet a chance immediately to take him up.