- Another ten days have gone by, and Strether is hanging out at Chad's house. By now, you have to figure that the Newsomes are wondering whether Strether has fallen off the face of the Earth.
- Chad repeats that he really hopes Strether will get along with Madame de Vionnet and her daughter Jeanne. Strether admits that he likes both, and worse yet, that he's said as much in his most recent letter to Mrs. Newsome. We smell a scandal.
- Strether remembers meeting Jeanne de Vionnet and how she told him that she's not just some shy little European girl. She feels like she's almost American, too, since her mother brought her up in a semi-American fashion. Again, Strether doesn't really know what this means.
- The great sculptor Gloriani comes over to Chad's place and remarks on what good taste in art Chad has. Not a bad compliment from someone who puts "great" in front of his name.
- Meanwhile, Waymarsh has gone off to have a conversation with Madame de Vionnet. Which means: time to gossip about them.
- Strether asks Miss Barrace if Madame de Vionnet is charmed by Waymarsh the way Miss Barrace is. Unsurprisingly (for everyone except Miss Barrace), the answer is no. De Vionnet finds Waymarsh a bucket of yawns. And Waymarsh doesn't seem to like her all that much, either.
- Strether suddenly comes out and asks Miss Barrace is Madame de Vionnet plans on getting divorced so she can marry Chad. Miss Barrace is shocked by the question and asks why Strether would think this. After all, she says, any two people can get married. It's keeping up a relationship without marrying that's truly remarkable.
- Predictably, agonizingly, and in keeping with the way things generally go in this book, this isn't an answer to Strether's question. Sure, it gives him more food for thought, but it doesn't tell us one way or the other if anything is going on between Chad and Madame de Vionnet.
- After some more beating around the bush, Strether decides again that Chad's relationship to both Madame de Vionnet and her daughter Jeanne is totally innocent. It's pretty much like he's doing the same math problem over and over again and keeps getting the same answer and is basically okay with it, but wants to do it again anyway.
- They get back to the subject to Waymarsh, and Miss Barrace criticizes him for taking everything in life too seriously. Though she also lets it drop that Waymarsh likes to give her presents. Not necessarily because he likes her, but because he likes to spend the money.
- Strether tells Miss Barrace that Waymarsh possesses a "sacred rage" (6.2.56), meaning that his Christian, puritan personality leads him to approach life with a constant sense of moral outrage and dissatisfaction. Yikes.
- Strether finishes the conversation with a comment about how he only seems to live his life for other people. Miss Barrace comes out and asks if this is the case, what does he do for Maria Gostrey?
- The answer: he says he has no clue why Maria likes spending time with him.