ELIZABETH DALTON
461
The description here is indeed "suggestive" - of beauty, pleasure,
"idle play," with a hint of danger. What it evokes is the life of the senses,
that aspect of experience Strether feels he has missed (he thinks of his
own lost youth as "to a degree it had never been, an affair of the
senses"). If Strether were to row out on this stream, he would be
launched - "afloat" on the river of life; at least he'd be paddling his own
canoe, instead of merely watching from the riverbank.
But the hesitant middle-aged man cannot be so easily transformed.
Strether gets to his feet but immediately feels tired. The act of standing
erect in an attitude suggesting assertive male sexuality is too much for
him; he has to lean against a post. The contrast with the ease he felt ear–
lier while lying on his back is striking. He then sees something that gives
him pause - a sharp "arrest"; the forceful word brings with it con–
notations of transgression and punishment, implying that what Strether is
about to see is forbidden. What he sees, however, is "exactly the right
thing - ":
.. . a boat advancing round the bend and containing a man who held
the paddles and a lady, at the stern, with a pink parasol. It was sud–
denly as if these figures ... had been wanted in the picture....
Until now a land- and waterscape, the canvas has required at its cen–
ter figures in whom its human meaning might be figured forth: the man
and woman full of youth, sex, and beauty - the embodiment of natural
forces. Strether's attempt to occupy this spot at the center of things was
bound not to come off.
The appearance of this couple is charged with meaning for Strether,
who has failed in his own attempt to venture out on the water:
The air quite thickened, at their approach, with further intimations;
the intimation that they were expert, familiar, frequent - that this
wouldn't at all events be the first time. They knew how to do it, he
vaguely felt.
Although the explicit subject is skill in boating, the language evokes
a second meaning almost more conspicuous than the first. The words
"expert, familiar, frequent" suggest the easy gratification of a successful
sexual relationship. This finally becomes nearly explicit in "They knew
how to do it."
As Strether watches, the boat comes near enough for him to
"dream," as he says, that the lady has seen him:
