ETHEL. Oceana! You'd do the Sunrise Dance?
OCEANA. Yes; and then if they liked it, I could do some others.
ETHEL. Oh, Oceana! How perfectly lovely! But . . . but I wonder if it
would be all right. I mean . . . it wouldn't shock them?
OCEANA. Why should it, my dear?
ETHEL. Is it what they'd call proper?
OCEANA. Why, of course, Ethel. How ridiculous! It isn't a sex-dance.
It's religious.
FREDDY. And the costume?
OCEANA. Oh, the costume is beautiful.
ETHEL. Then I'll ask mother.
[Starts to go.]
OCEANA. Wait. Will Henry be there?
ETHEL. Of course.
OCEANA. Are you sure?
ETHEL. Of course.
OCEANA. [Eagerly.] Why ask your mother at all? Why not just go ahead
and do it?
ETHEL. Oceana!
OCEANA. Why not? She'd only worry meantime. So let's just wait, and
I'll go ahead.
ETHEL. Oh, would you dare?
OCEANA. Why, of course! She needn't know until almost time. Is this
Miss Pilkington known here?
ETHEL. No, she's never been in Boston before.
FREDDY. Mother met her in London. She promised she'd do her famous
Biblical Dances for mother's pet foundling asylum.
OCEANA. Well, don't you see? Most of the people wouldn't know till it
was all over! And oh, Ethel, it would be such a lark! [ETHEL and
FREDDY gaze at each other dubiously.] Who was going to play for Miss
Pilkington ?
ETHEL. I was.
OCEANA. Well, then, you can play for me! You see, Ethel, I'm afraid to
tell your mother .
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