She completes the
dance from where she was interrupted, from an impulse of inner
delight.]
FREDDY. [Steals in right; watches her, enraptured, as she stands with
arms outstretched in ecstasy. He rushes towards her and flings himself
at her feet, clasping her hand.] Oceana!
OCEANA. Freddy!
FREDDY. [Sobbing incoherently.] Oceana! I can't stand it!
OCEANA. Why . . . what's the matter?
FREDDY. I love you! I love you! I can't live without you! I can't give
you up . . . Oceana, have mercy on me!
OCEANA. [Gravely.] Freddy! This won't do! No . . . let go of me,
please! You must control yourself.
FREDDY. Don't send me away! How can you be so cruel to me?
OCEANA. But, Freddy, I have told you that I don't love you. [She
stands, thinking.] Give me my robe. Now, come sit down here, and
listen to me. I am going away, Freddy, and you won't see me any more.
And that is for the best . . . for you must get me out of your mind. I
don't love you, Freddy.
FREDDY. And you never would love me?
OCEANA. Never.
FREDDY. But why not . . . why not?
OCEANA. I can't tell you that.
FREDDY. Oh, you are pitiless to me!
OCEANA. One does not give love out of pity. That is a cowardly thing
to ask. [She pauses.] I must be frank with you, Freddy. You have got
to face the facts. When I give my love, it will be to a man; and you
are not a man.
FREDDY. But I am growing up!
OCEANA. No; you don't understand me. You should have grown up years
ago.
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