'But one _ought_ to change. That is a dreadful sort of people, that go on straight over the heads of circumstances, just because they laid out the road there before the circumstances arose. I have seen such people. They tread down everything in their way.' 'Pitt does not change,' Mrs. Dallas said again. Her companion thought she said it with a certain satisfied confidence. And perhaps it was true; but the moment after Mrs. Dallas remembered that if the proposition were universal it might be inconvenient. 'At least he is hard to change,' she went on; 'therefore his father and I wished him to be educated in the old country, and to form his notions according to the standard of things there. I think a republic is very demoralizing.' 'Is the standard of morals lower here?' inquired the younger lady, demurely. 'I am not speaking of _morals_, in the usual sense. Of course, that-- But there is a little too much freedom here. And besides,--I wanted Pitt to be a true Church of England man.' 'Isn't he that?' 'Oh yes, I have no doubt he is now; but he had formed some associations I was afraid of. With my son's peculiar character, I thought there might be danger. I rely on you, Betty,' said Mrs. Dallas, smiling, 'to remove the last vestige.' The young lady gave a glance of quick, keen curiosity and understanding, in which sparkled a little amusement. 'What can I do?' she asked demurely. 'Bewitch him, as you do everybody.' 'Bewitch him, and hand him over to you!' she remarked. 'No,' said Mrs. Dallas; 'not necessarily. You must see him, before you can know what you would like to do with him.' 'Do I understand, then? He is supposed to be in some danger of lapsing from the true faith'-- 'Oh, no, my dear! I did not say that. I meant only, if he had stayed in America. It seems to me there is a general loosening of all bonds here. Boys and girls do their own way.' 'Was it only the general spirit of the air, Mrs. Dallas, or was it a particular influence, that you feared?' 'Well--both,' said Mrs. Dallas, again applying her knitting-needle under her cap. The younger lady was silent a few minutes; going on with her embroidery. 'This is getting to be very interesting,' she remarked. 'It is very interesting to me,' replied the mother, with a thoughtful look. 'For, as I told you, Pitt is a very fast friend, and persistent in all his likings and dislikings. Here he had none but the company of dissenters; and I did not want him to get _in_ with people of that persuasion.' 'Is there much society about here? I fancied not.' 'No society, for him. Country people--farmers--people of that stamp. Nothing else.' 'I should have thought, dear Mrs. Dallas, that _you_ would have been quite a sufficient counteraction to temptation from such a source?' Mrs. Dallas hesitated. 'Boys will be boys,' she said. 'But he is not a boy now?' 'He is twenty-four.'