- It's been a week since Sarah Pocock's arrival and she hasn't so much as spoken to Strether since their first meeting. Strether realizes that this is some sort of head game to make him feel anxious.
- But he refuses to give in to it, so he heads out to visit Maria Gostrey. That lady has always been really good at calming him down.
- Maria wants to know what all the gang's plans are, so it's update time. Strether mentions that Waymarsh is taking Sarah Pocock to dinner, and Sarah's husband Jim is going to explore Paris on his own. Okay, so that's kind of weird.
- But what's even weirder is that after dinner, Sarah and Waymarsh are going to go see the circus. Yes, the two people in the book who least like fun. Unless they're just going to throw stones at clowns.
- Anyway, they've tried to keep their circus trip a secret, which makes the whole thing even stranger. But Strether's found out and he loves to know how phony these people are for pretending that they don't like fun things.
- He also mentions that Chad will have dinner alone with Mamie Pocock at his own apartment that night. Intriguing. Strether doesn't think anything will happen between them, though.
- Strether revels in the idea that Sarah has fallen in love with Waymarsh, since these two dullards really seem to deserve each other. Maria asks if Waymarsh is in love with Sarah, but Strether doesn't think so.
- But he also knows Waymarsh well enough to know that his (Waymarsh's) ego would love to have this younger, married woman in love with him. That's why he's taking her to dinner—to stoke his pride.
- Maria suddenly asks him if he's heard about Jeanne de Vionnet's engagement. He has, which makes Maria sad that she doesn't have any new gossip to tell him.
- Strether now muses about how Chad might wish that he were more in love with Jeanne. It's pretty obvious that Madame de Vionnet would have blessed his marriage with her, so it'd be nice and convenient if he were in love with her. Yes, it's pretty weird as far as hypothetical alternate universes go.
- But at the same time, Strether knows it's sad that Chad's true affection seems to be with Madame de Vionnet herself, although he could never hope to marry her without some catastrophe happening first (i.e. her husband kicking the bucket).
- Strether also mentions that Jim Pocock seems like he's on their side, in terms of keeping Chad in Paris. What's even better, though, is that no one in the Newsome family seems to realize how much Jim wants to escape their clutches. No one, that is, except his sister Mamie.
- Up to this point, we've been told that Mamie is just nice to look at. But Strether is now suggesting that there's more to Mamie than meets the eye.