He wouldn't have expected it of me; but men of my age, at Woollett--and especially the least likely ones--have been noted as liable to strange outbreaks, belated uncanny clutches at the unusual, the ideal.

It's an effect that a lifetime of Woollett has quite been observed as having; and I thus give it to you, in Jim's view, for what it's worth.

Now his wife and his mother-in-law," Strether continued to explain, "have, as in honour bound, no patience with such phenomena, late or early--which puts Jim, as against his relatives, on the other side.

Besides," he added, "I don't think he really wants Chad back.

If Chad doesn't come--" "He'll have"-- Madame de Vionnet quite apprehended--"more of the free hand ?" "Well, Chad's the bigger man." "So he'll work now, en dessous, to keep him quiet ?" "No--he won't 'work' at all, and he won't do anything en dessous.