"And last only Monsieur de Montbron ?" "Last only"-- she good-humouredly kept it up.
Strether considered.

"So that every one after all then will be suited ?" She had one of her few hesitations, but it was a question only of a moment; and it was her nearest approach to being explicit with him about what was between them.

"I think I can speak for myself.

I shall be." It said indeed so much, told such a story of her being ready to help him, so committed to him that truth, in short, for such use as he might make of it toward those ends of his own with which, patiently and trustfully, she had nothing to do--it so fully achieved all this that he appeared to himself simply to meet it in its own spirit by the last frankness of admiration.

Admiration was of itself almost accusatory, but nothing less would serve to show her how nearly he understood.