- Strether is alone with Madame de Vionnet. He tells her that the main problem they're facing is that Sarah will refuse to acknowledge the improvements Chad has made over the past few years. It's like she's playing a fixed game, because any change that Chad can make while he's away from the virtuous Newsomes is automatically a bad one.
- Or in other words, the Newsomes look at the world with a sort of prejudice that Chad no longer possesses, and Strether is happy for the improvement.
- He admits that he's scared of Sarah Pocock and that it's difficult for him to defy her. Madame asks why, and he says it's because he's an anxious person and Sarah totally knows how to manipulate his anxiety. Even in their last meeting, for example, Sarah intentionally left out certain information about Mrs. Newsome's current thoughts about the engagement—which he sees as totally designed to make him paranoid.
- They wonder to each other about whether Sarah will be able to convince Chad to come home. Strether mentions that Chad has actually been spending most of his time with Jim, and that Jim is probably telling Chad not to come home behind Sarah's back.
- And it's not just because Jim loves Paris himself. It's because Jim is the dude who will probably runs the Newsomes' business is Chad doesn't come home. The plot thickens…
- While Chad and Jim are hanging out in Paris, Sarah is going to hang out with Waymarsh. Sounds like a yawn-fest to us.
- True to form, Strether thinks this'll be a great experience for both of them, because they're more alike than any other two characters in the book. They'll totally get along because both of them are cranks.
- Strether also suggests that Paris might actually still seduce Sarah the way it seduced him. We don't know why he still thinks this.
- Madame reminds him, though, that he had Maria Gostrey when he first arrived. Who is going to do the seducing to Sarah?
- Strether hopes that the new-and-improved Chad will be good enough, though he's a smidgeon less confident now.
- Their meeting ends, and Madame decides to walk a little way with Strether before they actually leave one another. Strether tells Madame that he wishes Mrs. Newsome herself could come to Paris and see Madame's beautiful house. It might not make a difference, but part of him still wishes Mrs. Newsome would see it, if only to show her that a whole world exists beyond her tiny town.
- The absolutely LAST thing Madame says to Strether in this meeting is that her daughter Jeanne is going to get married. This is a total shock and totally unrelated to what they've been talking about, but she wanted to let him know.
- It's more or less a marriage that Madame and her estranged husband have made for Jeanne. Strether asks whether Jeanne has had any say in the matter, and Madame assures him that Jeanne is happy to marry whomever her mother approves of.
- This is weird to Strether, who's more used to American ideas of love and marriage. But hey, to each their own.
- Strether wonders how Chad feels about the marriage, but decides he won't ask him right away. Just in case you needed another dose of suspense.