84/89 She abounded in praise of them, and after the manner of Woollett--which made the manner of Woollett a loveable thing again to Strether. He had never so felt the true inwardness of it as when his blooming companion pronounced the elder of the ladies of the Rue de Bellechasse too fascinating for words and declared of the younger that she was perfectly ideal, a real little monster of charm. "Nothing," she said of Jeanne, "ought ever to happen to her--she's so awfully right as she is. Another touch will spoil her--so she oughtn't to BE touched." "Ah but things, here in Paris," Strether observed, "do happen to little girls." And then for the joke's and the occasion's sake: "Haven't you found that yourself ?" "That things happen--? I'm a big battered blowsy one. |