The Ambassadors by Henry James
page 118 of 598 (19%)
page 118 of 598 (19%)
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carried on, under Chad's roof, without his knowledge. "I found his
friend in fact there keeping the place warm, as he called it, for him; Chad himself being, as appears, in the south. He went a month ago to Cannes and though his return begins to be looked for it can't be for some days. I might, you see, perfectly have waited a week; might have beaten a retreat as soon as I got this essential knowledge. But I beat no retreat; I did the opposite; I stayed, I dawdled, I trifled; above all I looked round. I saw, in fine; and-- I don't know what to call it--I sniffed. It's a detail, but it's as if there were something--something very good--TO sniff." Waymarsh's face had shown his friend an attention apparently so remote that the latter was slightly surprised to find it at this point abreast with him. "Do you mean a smell? What of?" "A charming scent. But I don't know." Waymarsh gave an inferential grunt. "Does he live there with a woman?" "I don't know." Waymarsh waited an instant for more, then resumed. "Has he taken her off with him?" "And will he bring her back?"--Strether fell into the enquiry. But he wound it up as before. "I don't know." The way he wound it up, accompanied as this was with another drop back, another degustation of the Leoville, another wipe of his |
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