The morning after her swim, Edna is still haunted by a sense of the "delicious, grotesque, impossible dream" of the previous night. During her brief sleep, she had dreams that she cannot remember after awakening, leaving her with the feeling of pursuing the unattainable. This morning she is a changed person, "blindly following whatever impulse moved her, as if she had . . . freed her soul of responsibility" during the heady events of the previous night.
Her first impulsive act of the day is to send for Robert so that he can accompany her to Chênière. This impulse is significant, because she had never requested his presence before. When he meets her, "his face was suffused with a quiet glow," indicating that he is aware of and pleased by the new tone their relationship has assumed.
His brief conversation with Mariequita is telling of his honed sensitivity to the situation. When he assures Mariequita that Edna cannot be his "sweetheart" because she is married with children, Mariequita responds matter-of-factly with local gossip about a man who ran off with another man's wife and child. Her tale indicates that such things are possible, which causes him to reply "Shut up!" with uncharacteristic rudeness, as if he is suddenly uncomfortable with the potential turn his relationship with Edna may take.
Mariequita represents an open sexuality, with her tales of forbidden love and her flirting with Robert and Beaudelet. When Robert begins ignoring her in favor of Edna, she regards him with "childish ill humor and reproach," again connecting childishness and sensuality.
