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The Ambassadors
Henry James
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The Ambassadors
Henry James
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About This Book
`Live all you can; it's a mistake not to,` declares the primary `ambassador` of this 1903 novel, adding, `It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?`
In this complex tale of self-discovery, Henry James invokes his favorite theme: the clash of American innocence with European experience. It traces the path of an aging idealist, Lambert Strether, who arrives in Paris intending to persuade his young charge to abandon an obsession with a French woman and return home. Once abroad, however, Strether arrives at unexpected conclusions.
Henry James regarded The Ambassadors as his finest work. Astute, humorous, and intelligent, this masterpiece from the pinnacle of the author's long and brilliant career remains ever vital.
In this complex tale of self-discovery, Henry James invokes his favorite theme: the clash of American innocence with European experience. It traces the path of an aging idealist, Lambert Strether, who arrives in Paris intending to persuade his young charge to abandon an obsession with a French woman and return home. Once abroad, however, Strether arrives at unexpected conclusions.
Henry James regarded The Ambassadors as his finest work. Astute, humorous, and intelligent, this masterpiece from the pinnacle of the author's long and brilliant career remains ever vital.
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BOOK ELEVENTH
I
HE WENT late that evening to the Boulevard Malesherbes, having his impression that it would be vain to go early, and having also, more than once in the course of the day, made enquiries of the concierge. Chad hadnât come in and had left no intimation; he had affairs, apparently, at this juncture as it occurred to Strether he so well might haveâthat kept him long abroad. Our friend asked once for him at the hotel in the Rue de Rivoli, but the only contribution offered there was the fact that every one was out. It was with the idea that he would have to come home to sleep that Strether went up to his rooms, from which however he was still absent, though, from the balcony, a few moments later, his visitor heard eleven oâclock strike. Chadâs servant had by this time answered for his reappearance; he had, the visitor learned, come quickly in to dress for dinner and vanish again. Strether spent an hour in waiting for himâan hour full of strange suggestions, persuasions, recognitions; one of those that he was to recall, at the end of his adventure, as the particular handful that most had counted. The mellowest lamplight and the easiest chair had been placed at his disposal by Baptiste, subtlest of servants; the novel half uncut, the novel lemon-coloured and tender, with the ivory knife athwart it like the dagger in a contadinaâs hair, had been pushed within the soft circleâa circle which, for some reason, affected Strether as softer still after the same Baptiste had remarked that in the absence of a further need of anything by Monsieur he would betake himself to bed. The night was hot and heavy and the single lamp sufficient; the great flare of the lighted city, rising high, spending itself afar, played up from the Boulevard and, through the vague vista of the successive rooms, brought objects into view and added to their dignity. Strether found himself in possession as he never yet had been; he had been there alone, had turned over books and prints, had invoked, in Chadâs absence, the spirit of the place, but never at the witching hour and never with a relish quite so like a pang.
He spent a long time on the balcony; he hung over it as he had seen little Bilham hang the day of his first approach, as he had seen Mamie hang over her own the day little Bilham himself might have seen her from below; he passed back into the rooms, the three that occupied the front and that communicated by wide doors; and, while he circulated and rested, tried to recover the impression that they had made on him three months before, to catch again the voice in which they had seemed then to speak to him. That voice, he had to note, failed audibly to sound; which he took as the proof of all the change in himself. He had heard, of old, only what he could then hear; what he could do now was to think of three months ago as a point in the far past. All voices had grown thicker and meant more things; they crowded on him as he moved aboutâit was the way they sounded together that wouldnât let him be still. He felt, strangely, as sad as if he had come for some wrong, and yet as excited as if he had come for some freedom. But the freedom was what was most in the place and the hour, it was the freedom that most brought him round again to the youth of his own that he had long ago missed. He could have explained little enough to-day either why he had missed it or why, after years and years, he should care that he had; the main truth of the actual appeal of everything was none the less that everything represented the substance of his loss, put it within reach, within touch, made it, to a degree it had never been, an affair of the senses. That was what it became for him at this singular time, the youth he had long ago missedâa queer concrete presence, full of mystery, yet full of reality, which he could handle, taste, smell, the deep breathing of which he could positively hear. It was in the outside air as well as within; it was in the long watch, from the balcony, in the summer night, of the wide late life of Paris, the unceasing soft quick rumble, below, of the little lighted carriages that, in the press, always suggested the gamblers he had seen of old at Monte Carlo pushing up to the tables. This image was before him when he at last became aware that Chad was behind.
âShe tells me you put it all on meââhe had arrived after this promptly enough at that information; which expressed the case however quite as the young man appeared willing for the moment to leave it. Other things, with this advantage of their virtually having the night before them, came up for them, and had, as well, the odd effect of making the occasion, instead of hurried and feverish, one of the largest, loosest and easiest to which Stretherâs whole adventure was to have treated him. He had been pursuing Chad from an early hour and had overtaken him only now; but now the delay was repaired by their being so exceptionally confronted. They had foregathered enough of course in all the various times; they had again and again, since that first night at the theatre, been face to face over their question; but they had never been so alone together as they were actually aloneâtheir talk hadnât yet been so supremely for themselves. And if many things moreover passed before them, none passed more distinctly for Strether than that striking truth about Chad of which he had been so often moved to take note: the truth that everything came happily back with him to his knowing how to live. It had been seated in his pleased smileâa smile that pleased exactly in the right degreeâas his visitor turned round, on the balcony, to greet his advent; his visitor in fact felt on the spot that there was nothing their meeting would so much do as bear witness to that facility. He surrendered himself accordingly to so approved a gift; for what was the meaning of the facility but that others did surrender themselves? He didnât want, luckily, to prevent Chad from living; but he was quite aware that even if he had he would himself have thoroughly gone to pieces. It was in truth essentially by bringing down his personal life to a function all subsidiary to the young manâs own that he held together. And the great point, above all, the sign of how completely Chad possessed the knowledge in question, was that one thus became, not only with a proper cheerfulness, but with wild native impulses, the feeder of his stream. Their talk had accordingly not lasted three minutes without Stretherâs feeling basis enough for the excitement in which he had waited. This overflow fairly deepened, wastefully abounded, as he observed the smallness of anything corresponding to it on the part of his friend. That was exactly this friendâs happy case; he âput outâ his excitement, or whatever other emotion the matter involved, as he put out his washing; than which no arrangement could make more for domestic order. It was quite for Strether himself in short to feel a personal analogy with the laundress bringing home the triumphs of the mangle.
When he had reported on Sarahâs visit, which he did very fully, Chad answered his question with perfect candour. âI positively referred her to youâtold her she must absolutely see you. This was last night, and it all took place in ten minutes. It was our first free talkâreally the first time she had tackled me. She knew I also knew what her line had been with yourself; knew moreover how little you had been doing to make anything difficult for her. So I spoke for you franklyâassured her you were all at her service. I assured her I was too,â the young man continued; âand I pointed out how she could perfectly, at any time, have got at me. Her difficulty has been simply her not finding the moment she fancied.â
âHer difficulty,â Strether returned, âhas been simply that she finds sheâs afraid of you. Sheâs not afraid of me, Sarah, one little scrap; and it was just because she has seen how I can fidget when I give my mind to it that she has felt her best chance, rightly enough, to be in making me as uneasy as possible. I think sheâs at bottom as pleased to have you put it on me as you yourself can possibly be to put it.â
âBut what in the world, my dear man,â Chad inquired in objection to this luminosity, âhave I done to make Sally afraid?â
âYouâve been âwonderful, wonderful,â as we sayâwe poor people who watch the play from the pit; and thatâs what has, admirably, made her. Made her all the more effectually that she could see you didnât set about it on purposeâI mean set about affecting her as with fear.â
Chad cast a pleasant backward glance over his possibilities of motive. âIâve only wanted to be kind and friendly, to be decent and attentiveâand I still only want to be.â
Strether smiled at his comfortable clearness. âWell, there can certainly be no way for it better than by my taking the onus. It reduces your personal friction and your personal offence to almost nothing.â
Ah but Chad, with his completer conception of the friendly, wouldnât quite have this! They had remained on the balcony, where, after their day of great and premature heat, the midnight air was delicious; and they leaned back in turn against the balustrade, all in harmony with the chairs and the flower-pots, the cigarettes and the starlight. âThe onus isnât really yoursâafter our agreeing so to wait together and judge together. That was all my answer to Sally,â Chad pursuedââthat we have been, that we are, just judging together.â
âIâm not afraid of the burden,â Strether explained; âI havenât come in the least that you should take it off me. Iâve come very much, it seems to me, to double up my fore legs in the manner of the camel when he gets down on his knees to make his back convenient. But Iâve supposed you all this while to have been doing a lot of special and private judgingâabout which I havenât troubled you; and Iâve only wished to have your conclusion first from you. I donât ask more than that; Iâm quite ready to take it as it has come.â
Chad turned up his face to the sky with a slow puff of his smoke. âWell, Iâve seen.â
Strether waited a little. âIâve left you wholly alone; havenât, I think I may say, since the first hour or twoâwhen I merely preached patienceâso much as breathed on you.â
âOh youâve been awfully good!â
âWeâve both been good thenâweâve played the game. Weâve given them the most liberal conditions.â
âAh,â said Chad, âsplendid conditions! It was open to them, open to themââhe seemed to make it out, as he smoked, with his eyes still on the stars. He might in quiet sport have been reading their horoscope. Strether wondered meanwhile what had been open to them, and he finally let him have it. âIt was open to them simply to let me alone; to have made up their minds, on really seeing me for themselves, that I could go on well enough as I was.â
Strether assented to this proposition with full lucidity, his companionâs plural pronoun, which stood all for Mrs. Newsome and her daughter, having no ambiguity for him. There was nothing, apparently, to stand for Mamie and Jim; and this added to our friendâs sense of Chadâs knowing what he thought. âBut theyâve made up their minds to the oppositeâthat you canât go on as you are.â
âNo,â Chad continued in the same way; âthey wonât have it for a minute.â
Strether on his side also reflectively smoked. It was as if their high place really represented some moral elevation from which they could look down on their recent past. âThere never was the smallest chance, do you know, that they would have it for a moment.â
âOf course notâno real chance. But if they were willing to think there wasââ!â
âThey werenât willing.â Strether had worked it all out. âIt wasnât for you they came out, but for me. It wasnât to see for themselves what youâre doing, but what Iâm doing. The first branch of their curiosity was inevitably destined, under my culpable delay, to give way to the second; and itâs on the second that, if I may use the expression and you donât mind my marking the invidious fact, theyâve been of late exclusively perched. When Sarah sailed it was me, in other words, they were after.â
Chad took it in both with intelligence and with indulgence. âIt is rather a business thenâwhat Iâve let you in for!â
Strether had again a brief pause; which ended in a reply that seemed to dispose once for all of this element of compunction. Chad was to treat it, at any rate, so far as they were again together, as having done so. âI was âinâ when you found me.â
âAh but it was you,â the young man laughed, âwho found me.â
âI only found you out. It was you who found me in. It was all in the dayâs work for them, at all events, that they should come. And theyâve greatly enjoyed it,â Strether declared.
âWell, Iâve tried to make them,â said Chad.
His companion did himself presently the same justice. âSo have I. I tried even this very morningâwhile Mrs. Pocock was with me. She enjoys for instance, almost as much as anything else, not being, as Iâve said, afraid of me; and I think I gave her help in that.â
Chad took a deeper interest. âWas she very nasty?â
Strether debated. âWell, she was the most important thingâshe was definite. She wasâat lastâcrystalline. And I felt no remorse. I saw that they must have come.â
âOh I wanted to see them for myself; so that if it were only for thatââ!â Chadâs own remorse was as small.
This appeared almost all Strether wanted. âIsnât your having seen them for yourself then the thing, beyond all others, that has come of their visit?â
Chad looked as if he thought it nice of his old friend to put it so. âDonât you count it as anything that youâre dishedâif you are dished? Are you, my dear man, dished?â
It sounded as if he were asking if he had caught cold or hurt his foot, and Strether for a minute but smoked and smoked. âI want to see her again. I must see her.â
âOf course you must.â Then Chad hesitated. âDo you meanâaâMother herself?â
âOh your motherâthat will depend.â
It was as if Mrs. Newsome had somehow been placed by the words very far off. Chad however endeavoured in spite of this to reach the place. âWhat do you mean it will depend on?â
Strether, for all answer, gave him a longish look. âI was speaking of Sarah. I must positivelyâthough she quite cast me offâsee her again. I canât part with her that way.â
âThen she was awfully unpleasant?â
Again Strether exhaled. âShe was what she had to be. I mean that from the moment theyâre not delighted they can only beâwell what I admit she was. We gave them,â he went on, âtheir chance to be delighted, and theyâve walked up to it, and looked all round it, and not taken it.â
âYou can bring a horse to waterââ!â Chad suggested.
âPrecisely. And the tune to which this morning Sarah wasnât delightedâthe tune to which, to adopt your metaphor, she refused to drinkâleaves us on that side nothing more to hope.â
Chad had a pause, and then as if consolingly: âIt was never of course really the least on the cards that they would be âdelighted.ââ
âWell, I donât know, after all,â Strether mused. âIâve had to come as far round. Howeverââhe shook it offââitâs doubtless my performance thatâs absurd.â
âThere are certainly moments,â said Chad, âwhen you seem to me too good to be true. Yet if you are true,â he added, âthat seems to be all that need concern me.â
âIâm true, but Iâm incredible. Iâm fantastic and ridiculousâI donât explain myself even to myself. How can they then,â Strether asked, âunderstand me? So I donât quarrel with them.â
âI see. They quarrel,â said Chad rather comfortably, âwith us.â Strether noted once more the comfort, but his young friend had already gone on. âI should feel greatly ashamed, all the same, if I didnât put it before you again that you ought to think, after all, tremendously well. I mean before giving up beyond recallâââ With which insistence, as from a certain delicacy, dropped.
Ah but Strether wanted it. âSay it all, say it all.â
âWell, at your age, and with whatâwhen allâs said and doneâMother might do for you and be for you.â
Chad had said it all, from his natural scruple, only to that extent; so that Strether after an instant himself took a hand. âMy absence of an assured future. The little I have to show toward the power to take care of myself. The way, the wonderful way, she would certainly take care of me. Her fortune, her kindness, and the constant miracle of her having been disposed to go even so far. Of course, of courseââhe summed...