“It doesn’t seem to have done,” she laughed, “all it might! However,” she added, “if you’ve really never guessed the truth I’ll tell it you.”
“I’ve never guessed it,” Strether declared.
“Never?”
“Never.”
“Well then I dashed off, as you say, so as not to have the confusion of being there if Marie de Vionnet should tell you anything to my detriment.”
He looked as if he considerably doubted. “You even then would have had to face it on your return.”
“Oh if I had found reason to believe it something very bad I’d have left you altogether.”
“So then,” he continued, “it was only on guessing she had been on the whole merciful that you ventured back?”
Maria kept it together. “I owe her thanks. Whatever her temptation she didn’t separate us. That’s one of my reasons,” she went on “for admiring her so.”
“Let it pass then,” said Strether, “for one of mine as well. But what would have been her temptation?”