The Naturewoman Part 8

MRS. MASTERSON. You might get Anna to play billiards with you. No doubt she's an expert.

[Exit right.]

[DR. MASTERSON sighs, shakes his head, and resumes reading.]

OCEANA. [Enters, radiant, clad in an ermine cloak.] Well, Uncle Quincy!

DR. MASTERSON. Oceana! Bless me! How gorgeous!

OCEANA. [Takes it off and throws it on the chair.] It's really too warm for walking.

DR. MASTERSON. I should have thought, coming from a tropical climate. ..

OCEANA. Ah, but my blood circulates, you see. [Sits opposite him.] Uncle Quincy, I want to have a talk with you.

DR. MASTERSON. Yes, my dear?

OCEANA. Uncle Quincy, why do you let Aunt Sophronia and Let.i.tia frighten you the way they do?

DR. MASTERSON. My dear girl!

OCEANA. Take yesterday afternoon, for instance-what I said about syphilis. You know I was right, and yet you didn't dare say so.

DR. MASTERSON. Really, Oceana...

OCEANA. You are an educated man-a man of science. You know what modern ideas are. And yet you consent to be walked all over!

DR. MASTERSON. My dear...

OCEANA. Here are these women... they have leisure and opportunity. .. they ought to be doing some good in the world. And yet they haven't an idea except to act as other people think they ought to act!

DR. MASTERSON. Dear me! Dear me!

[Rises and begins to pace the room.]

OCEANA. Don't run away from me.

DR. MASTERSON. I'm not running away. But you are so disconcerting, Oceana...

OCEANA. I know; but that's only because you know that what I say is true, and you don't like to feel that anybody else knows it.

FREDDY. [Off.] Oceana!

OCEANA. Freddy!

FREDDY. [Enters.] Oh! Father's here!

OCEANA. Yes; we were having a chat.

FREDDY. [Hesitates.] Father, will you excuse me, please... I have something very important to say to Oceana. I've been waiting for her.

DR. MASTERSON. Why... what...

FREDDY. Don't ask me, please. I must have a talk with her right away. Please come, Oceana.

OCEANA. All right.

DR. MASTERSON. I was going to the billiard-room, anyway. Pray excuse me.

[Exit centre.]

OCEANA. [Smiles.] See him run! Well, Freddy, what is it?

FREDDY. [Intensely.] Oceana!

OCEANA. What's the matter?

FREDDY. You mustn't stay here!

OCEANA. Why not?

FREDDY. They'll ruin you, Oceana! They'll crush you, they'll spoil you forever! You must go away!

OCEANA. Why, my dear boy, how can they hurt me?

FREDDY. They will, they will! I've been thinking about it all day! I didn't go to college... I spent the whole day pacing the streets.

OCEANA. Why, Freddy!

FREDDY. And I want you to come away! Come away with me! I want you.. . [Wildly.]... I want you to marry me!

OCEANA. [Aghast.] Why, Freddy!

FREDDY. Oh, I know it's a fool way... to blurt it out at you like that. I thought up a hundred ways to say it to you. I had a fine speech all by heart, but I can't remember a word of it. When I see you I can't even think straight. I'm simply beside myself... I can't rest, I can't sleep, I can't do anything. I used to laugh at such ideas, but now I'm frightened at myself. Can't you understand me, Oceana? Oceana... I love you!

OCEANA. [Whispers.] My poor boy!

FREDDY. I don't ask you to say yes... I just ask you to give me a chance... a hope. If I thought I might win you, I'd do anything.. . anything! I'd wait for you... I'd work for you... I'd worship you! Oceana! [He stops.] May I... May I take your hand? [She does not give it.] Ah, no! I have no right! Oceana, listen to me! I have thought that I was in love before... but it was just childish, it was nothing like this. This has been a revelation to me... it makes all the world seem different to me. And just see how suddenly it's come... why, yesterday I was a boy! Yesterday I thought some things were interesting... and to-day I wonder how I could have cared about them. Nothing seems the same to me. And it all happened at once, it was like an explosion... the first instant I laid eyes on you I knew that you were the one woman I could ever love. And I said to myself, she will laugh at you.

[He hesitates.]

OCEANA. No, I won't laugh at you.

FREDDY. I tried to keep it to myself, but I couldn't... not if I were to be hanged for it. I'm just... just torn out of myself. I'm trembling with delight, and then I'm plunged into despair, and then I stop to think and I'm terrified. For I don't know what I can do. Everything in my life is gone-I won't know how to live if you send me away.

OCEANA. [Gravely.] Freddy, come sit down here. Be rational now.

FREDDY. Yes.