]
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.
[He sits watching her, in a kind of daze.]
OCEANA. In the first place, Freddy . . . you must understand, it isn't
the first time this has happened to me.
FREDDY. No, I suppose not.
OCEANA. The officers of the ships always used to fall in love with me.
There were three on this last steamer.
FREDDY. Yes.
OCEANA. You say to marry you. But it's difficult for me to imagine
myself marrying any man, no matter how much I loved him. One has to
make so many promises, you know.
FREDDY. How do you mean?
OCEANA. You have to "love, honor and obey."
FREDDY. But, Oceana! That's a mere form.
OCEANA. No, no. It's written in the laws. All kinds of things . . .
people don't realize it.
FREDDY. But surely . . . if you love a man . . . a decent man . . .
OCEANA. No decent man ought to ask a woman to sign away her self-
respect.
FREDDY. [Bewildered.] But then . . . then . . . what would you do?
OCEANA. [Watches him, then laughs to herself.
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