Edgar looked at her. Gradually his expression lightened. Claudia's face was so earnest, her concern to know his view was so obviously sincere.
"I couldn't possibly tell you how I should feel," he answered, smiling.
"Would you marry a girl who ... well, who wasn't quite ... wasn't quite fresh?"
Forgetting the horror he had glimpsed, Edgar thought for an instant.
"It all depends on the girl's attitude," he ventured. "I think for me it would be a question of whether there was any confusion in her mind between me and the other man. If there were, I wouldn't marry her."
"You do admit the right of a girl to freedom of every kind of action?"
"In theory."
"Not in fact?" Claudia was very eager. Edgar answered definitely.
"Not in fact. Any more than I admit the same right in a man."
"Ah, that's the point! You admit the right; but you don't think it should be indulged. I quite agree, Edgar. It's because it affects other people. That's ethics; not conventions. All the difference in the world. Thank you. I've been thinking about it a good deal, and I wanted to hear what you felt. Good boy!"