The Naturewoman Part 16

MRS. MASTERSON. Henry!

FREDDY. Gee whiz!

LEt.i.tIA. Henry, I demand that you come home with me instantly.

OCEANA. Don't go.

LEt.i.tIA. [Almost speechless.] If you stay here, you stay alone!

OCEANA. [Rises, casts aside her robe, stretches wide her arms.] Let.i.tia! Look at me! Am I the sort of woman that you can safely leave your husband alone with?

LEt.i.tIA. [Stares at her terrified, then bursts into tears and flings herself into HENRY'S arms.] Henry!

OCEANA. Ah, yes! That is safer!

HENRY. [Supports LEt.i.tIA.] My dear! My dear!

LEt.i.tIA. Come home with me!

OCEANA. G.o.d, man, how I pity you! Bound in chains to a woman like that! And with all the world conspiring to hold you fast! How can you bear it? Do you expect to bear it forever? What will become of your soul? Oh, I pity you! I pity you!

LEt.i.tIA. [Hysterically.] Henry, take me home! Take me home at once!

HENRY. Yes, my dear, yes!

OCEANA. What is the spell they've laid upon you? You make me think of Gulliver... a giant stretched out upon the ground, impotent, bound fast with a million tiny threads! Wake up, man... wake up! You've only one life to live. You act as if you had a thousand.

LEt.i.tIA. Mother!

MRS. MASTERSON. How long is this to continue?

LEt.i.tIA. Henry, won't you stop listening to her?

OCEANA. He's not listening to me, Let.i.tia. He's listening to the voice of the universe, calling to him. The voice of unborn generations, clamoring, agonizing! What do you suppose it means, man... this storm that has shaken us? It is Nature's trumpet-call... it is the shout of discovery of the powers within us! For ages upon ages life has been preparing it... and now suddenly we meet... the barriers are shattered and flung down, the tides of being sweep us together!

MRS. MASTERSON. Oh! This is outrageous!

DR. MASTERSON. Oceana, Henry is married!

OCEANA. Married! Married! That is the sorcery with which you bind him! No longer a man at all, but some aborted thing... a relic! An eunuch! They mumble their incantations over you... the spell is done, and you sink back, cowed and whimpering! You are a machine, a domestic utensil! Never again are you to love and to dare to create No, there are other things in life for you... bread and b.u.t.ter, cooks and dinner parties, billiards and bridge-whist... that is your portion! A married man!

LEt.i.tIA. [Terrified.] Henry! For G.o.d's sake!

[He no longer returns her embraces, but stares at Oceana, fascinated.]

OCEANA. Don't you see, man? It's a dream! A nightmare! Rouse yourself, lift your head... and it's gone! Life is calling! Come away!

LEt.i.tIA. [Frantically.] Mother! Mother!

MRS. MASTERSON. Quincy, if you can't stop this outrage, I will! Call the servants.

[She starts toward Oceana.]

OCEANA. Call the police! Call your guests! Anything... bring the world down on him. Terrify him with conventions, beat him into subjection again!

MRS. MASTERSON. Wanton!

OCEANA. Wanton! Oh, how well you understand me! I, with my hunger for righteousness... I, who have disciplined myself as an anchorite, who have served as a priestess of life! And you, with your formulas and your superst.i.tions... you pa.s.s judgment upon me! [With terrific energy.] See! This man and I, we are the gateway to the future! And you seek to bar it! By what right do you stand in the path of posterity... you tormentors of the ideal, you a.s.sa.s.sins of human hope!

MRS. MASTERSON. [Almost striking her.] Oh! Oh! And my children have to listen to this! [She whirls about.] Ethel! Freddy! Go out of the room!

ETHEL. I am going with Oceana.

MRS. MASTERSON. What?

ETHEL. Some day... if not now. She's perfectly right. Let.i.tia has no business to keep him. She never would have got him if she hadn't played a part.

MRS. MASTERSON. Ethel Masterson!

LEt.i.tIA. Little vixen!

FREDDY. [Rushes to OCEANA and seizes her hand.] Oceana! Let me go with you, too!

DR. MASTERSON. What next!

OCEANA. No, Freddy... no! [She withdraws her hand and holds it out to Henry.] Henry! Come!

[A tense pause; all stare at Henry. He never takes his eyes from Oceana. Slowly, like one hypnotized, he draws away from his wife's embrace, and moves towards Oceana. He seizes her hand. All stand transfixed. Silence.]

[CURTAIN]

ACT IV

[The scene shows the living-room of a bungalow. Large stone fireplace centre; windows and window seats on each side; French windows leading to piazza right; piano between them; door left to another room; large mirror beside it. Centre table, rustic chairs, deer-heads and skins, Indian blankets, etc.]

[At rise: The stage is empty.]

OCEANA. [Laughs off.] Oh, say, but that was an adventure!

[Enters; glowing and exultant from a long mountain walk. She wears a "Rosalind" costume, brown, with soft boots, gauntlet gloves and light fur about the neck; carries a pair of snow-shoes, which she has taken off and from which she knocks the snow.]

HENRY. [Follows.] You like the mountains!

OCEANA. Oh, my dear! They are marvellous! I've never imagined anything like it... to be able to see so much of the world at once. It's the way you think of heaven.

HENRY. You don't mind the cold?