But there's no help for it.
ETHEL. So long as she doesn't miss to-morrow night! Did I read you
what she said about that, Freddy? [Takes letter from pocket.] "I'll
pray for fair weather, so that I may get there to see the beautiful
dancing. There is nothing in all the world that I love more . . . my
whole being seems to flow into the dance. I send you the music of my
Sunrise Dance, that father composed for me. You can learn it, and I'll
do it for you. I don't know, of course; but father used to think that
I was wonderful in it . . and he had known all the great dances in
Europe. It was the last thing I heard him play, before he went out in
the boat, and I saw him perish before my eyes." Don't you think that
she writes beautifully, Freddy?
FREDDY. Yes; it's surprising.
ETHEL, Oh, yes. Her father was an extraordinary man, Henry says . . .
a musician and a poet. They had books and everything, apparently.
You'd think she's been living in Europe.
FREDDY. I see.
ETHEL. Listen to this: [Reads.] "About my name . . . I forgot to
explain. You see, Anna sounds like England . . . or New England . . .
and I am not the least like those places. Father used to see me, as a
little tot, diving through the breakers, and floating out in the sea,
with the snow-white frigate- birds flashing by overhead; and he said I
was the very spirit of the island and the wild, lonely ocean. So he
called me Oceana, and that's the name I've always borne.
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