- Miss Maria Gostrey arrives in Paris a week after Strether and Waymarsh have gotten there. Again, coincidence? We think, um, maybe.
- Strether wastes no time in going to pay a call. There's no denying that Strether feels a deep intimacy with Maria: "The circle in which they stood together was warm with life, and every question between them would live there as nowhere else" (3.2.1). That's deep stuff, yo!
- Strether confesses to Maria that he's done something terrible: he's become friends with the little artist named Bilham. He's consorting with the enemy!
- Miss Gostrey says she'd like to meet Bilham, and Strether thinks this is a great idea.
- He also admits that since arriving in Paris, he hasn't found out a single thing about Chad's life that deserves criticism. That could also be just lack of 411, since he still doesn't know if Chad's living with a woman.
- Fast forward to when Maria first meets Bilham. She leans into Strether and says not to worry; Bilham is "one of us."
- Strether doesn't totally understand what Maria means by this, but it's pretty obvious that she's including him in the same category as her and Bilham: they're all people who seek something more in life than the prudes back in America.
- Strether's pretty keen on this whole belonging idea, and once more, he gets sucked a little deeper into the world of Paris and its amusements.
- Strether suddenly realizes what makes the artist Bilham such a cool guy: he looks at the world without any kind of prejudice. Americans like Waymarsh and the Newsomes are always judging everything (and everyone) they encounter to see whether they're good or bad. The idea of being unprejudiced and of judging things fairly is a totally new idea to Strether.
- A few days later, Strether gets a letter from Maria saying that she has box seats to the Paris theatre. Lucky for him, his only job is to hang out in Paris until Chad shows up, so he goes with her. Of course, Waymarsh is going to tag along, too.
- At the theatre, the three of them discuss Bilham. Strether talks him up, but Waymarsh says that the kid is an unmanned and uncivilized brute. Ouch.
- Strether is pained by this judgment because it shows him just how far apart he and Waymarsh have grown since coming to Europe. What happened to the whole not-judging-folks thing?
- Maria suddenly suggests to Strether that Chad might intentionally be out of town in order to let Strether spend some time wandering around Paris. Chad and Bilham might have a conspiracy to turn Strether into one of them. In which case, Maria adds, it totally seems to be working.
- Conspiracy theorists are pretty much applauding in their chairs at this point.
- Before they can get too deep into the theorizing, the door of their box opens and a gentleman walks in. This is what the lit industry calls uncannily perfect timing. Plus, the play is just starting up again, so none of them can say anything to the intruder. Oh, the suspense!
- In case it wasn't totally obvious, Strether realizes with a gasp that their visitor is actually Chad Newsome. Surprise!
- Simply put, Strether is won over even more based on Chad's impressive and shockingly sophisticated appearance. The guy who Strether still thinks of as a cocky young boy now has some grey streaks in his hair and carries himself like a very dignified theatre-goer. Think high school guys and nerd-pot Strether just spotted the jockiest of jocks.
- His buddy Waymarsh, though, isn't impressed, and he just glowers at Chad from his seat.
- Waymarsh be darned, Strether suddenly become self-conscious about how he must look to Chad. After all, Strether wants to be a cool guy too.
- Strether spends the rest of the play obsessing over everything he now knows about Chad and his super cool Paris life. And better yet, there seems to be nothing in Chad's life that is morally questionable. There's no sign of any "evil" woman in his life, and all of his friends are cool artists. There's a lot of assumption going on here.
- Strether knows that he needs to write a letter back to Mrs. Newsome in Woollett. But he has no clue what to say. He knows that he better not write back bragging about how much Chad has flourished since leaving his boring family behind. What to do?
- Strether scribbles home a few sparse details and keeps his gushing to himself. "Chad has grey hair now," is about as descriptive as he gets. Just what an anxious sugar mama wants to hear.