"Yes, I think he is rather irresponsible," assented Margaret. "I suppose he would say why shouldn't he be, if it pleases him." "No reason in the world, I don't imagine any one cares. But they ought not to permit Edgarda Thorne to go about with him as she does; she has never been in the habit of walking or sailing with Manuel Ruiz, or that young Cuban--I mean walking or sailing with them alone." "Probably they have never asked her." "That is very likely, I suppose they wouldn't dream of it. And that is what I am referring to; she has been brought up here under such a curious mixture of freedom and strictness that she is not at all fitted to understand a person like Spenser." "Shall I speak to Mrs. Thorne?" said Margaret. She was standing by the piazza's parapet, her hand resting on its top, her eyes fixed on Patricio, though the two figures were no longer in sight. Winthrop's chair being behind her and on one side, he could see only her profile, outlined against the light. "Mrs. Thorne is already awakened to it," he answered; "she has spoken to me on the subject." "There was your opportunity. What did you say?" "I told her--I told her not to be uneasy," he replied, breaking into a laugh over his own inconsistencies. "But it isn't Mrs. Thorne who is to blame--I mean Mrs. Thorne alone; it is Mrs. Carew, the Kirbys, the Moores, and all the rest of them." "In other words, the whole society of Gracias. Do you think we ought to corrupt them with our worldly cautions?" "We're not corrupting, it's Spenser who's corrupting; we should never corrupt them though we should stay here forever. They're idyllic, of course, it's an idyllic society; but we can be idyllic too." Margaret shook her head. "I'm afraid we can only be appreciative." "It's the same thing. If we can appreciate little Gracias, with its remoteness and simplicity and stateliness, its pine barrens and beaches and roses, I maintain that we're very idyllic; what can be more so?" Margaret did not reply. After a while she said, "If you will take Aunt Katrina to drive to-morrow afternoon, I will have Telano row me down to East Angels." "You think you will speak in any case? I suppose you know with what enthusiastic approval Mrs. Thorne honors all you say and do?" "Yes, something of it." "But you don't care for her approvals," he said, half interrogatively. "Yes, I care," Margaret answered. "In this case I care a great deal, as it may give me some influence over her." "What shall you say to her?--not that I have any right to ask." "I am very willing to tell. I had thought of asking whether she would let Garda go back with me when we go home--back to New York; I had thought of having her go to school there for six months." "I can't imagine her in a school! But it's very kind in you to think of it, all the same." "She could stay with Madame Martel, and take lessons; it wouldn't be quite like a school."