The conflict at the heart of The Ambassadors (and James)

Strether is about to enjoy his country repast, sitting in a pavillion beside a lake or river, one of the most beautiful passages in Henry James's "The Ambassadors," when he notices a rowboat coming by with a woman under a parasol - and then, he's shocked to see that it's Chad and his beloved, the married (but separated) older (but not much) Mme de Vionnet. The three of them recognize one another and after lots of awkward moments that James analyzes in great detail and over which Strether perseverates for for days, they have dinner together, engage in awkward conversation, then ride by carriage and train back to Paris. The observant Strether notes that Mme de Vionnet does not even have a shawl on this chilly evening - and her surmises that she and Chad were to stay somewhere in the country and that she's actually left her clothes back on the room overnight. OK - so honestly, even a century ago, what's the big deal? He certainly knows by this point in is travels - and we obviously know as readers - that Chad and Mme dV are involved with each other, that she's the reason Chad is staying in Paris and not obeying his mother's wishes and returning to Connecticut. Is it such a shock that they're together for a weekend in the country? Aren't they together all the time in Paris? This episode is another example of the weird ellipses and obscurities of James's style and sensibility: his characters, Strether a great example, are comfortable with what they don't know; Strether knows on one level that Chad and Mme dV are involved in a sexual relationship, but as long as he doesn't see it, as long as he can pretend that everyone's relations are like his - full of endless dialogue and picking over little social niceties - then he's comfortable. As soon as the relationship is right before his eyes, he's knocked off his pins. That's a very Jamesian sensibility: there's a whole sea of emotions in turmoil just below the surface, but the characters (and author) try desperately to maintain a surface calm, an air of reason and placidity. In The Ambassadors, it plays out as a conflict between Paris and "Woolett" Connecticut, but it's really a conflict within the characters, and at times between them.