The arrival of the Pococks and Strether's duplicity: A new twist in The Ambassadors

The Pococks arrive from America, and Henry James's "The Ambassadors" takes on a new tone: these are the sister and brother-in-law of the matron Mrs. Newsome, along with their eligible daughter whom they think, ha!, might be further enticement for Chad to return to Connecticut. The protagonist, Strether, meets them at the station and becomes a guide for Mr. Pocock; Pocock (both, actually) are send-ups the uncultured American boors. Actually, I find them kind of refreshing - first of all, it's the only dialogue so far in the novel that seems credible and that is completely understandable. Till the arrival of the Pococks, everyone in the novel spoke circuitously, ambiguously, and elliptically - that is, as James writes. I understand that James sees Pocock, a boorish and bumptious American who wants to have "a good time" in Paris - he winks and nods at Strether right from the start, and wants Strether to enter into an alliance with him and against the restrictions of his wife (and sister-in-law) - perhaps we're meant to see him as crude, and I certainly have no great affection for the bigoted, Babbitish, American businessman - but at least he speaks his mind. Strether, on the other hand, is increasingly contemptible, and, as noted previously, he's the world's worst ambassador. Not only has he wasted everyone's time as he supposedly tries to bring Chad back home when in fact he's doing no such thing; now, he's concealing from the Pococks his obvious attraction to Miss Gostrey, he's covering up for Chad, and he cannot acknowledge that he wants to stay in Paris - let him! Let Mrs. Pocock take on the mission of "saving" Chad. Paris is, for the likes of Strether, like the Land of the Lotus Eaters - he's had a taste, and he will never leave (or at least so he thinks - we'll see how much Mrs. Newsome's $ serves as a magnet to draw him back). James has some fun - for him - with the Pococks because they're so simple, but, whether James know this or not (he probably did know it), their simplicity shows up the fussiness and phoniness of those around him who are supposedly their "betters" - or at least it does to me.