]
HENRY. [Follows.] You like the mountains!
OCEANA. Oh, my dear! They are marvellous! I've never imagined anything
like it . . . to be able to see so much of the world at once. It's the
way you think of heaven.
HENRY. You don't mind the cold?
OCEANA. I find I prefer it. I think I shall stay here forever. It
tunes you up so! It makes you quite drunk! [Looks at herself in the
mirror.] I look cute in this, don't I?
HENRY. You look like a fairy-story!
OCEANA. I ought to have had sense enough to think of a theatrical
costumer in the beginning. [Stretches her arms.] Oh, I feel so
wonderful! Ha, ha, ha! I don't know whether it's the mountain air . .
. or whether it's because I'm in love!
HENRY. [Seizes her hand.] Sweetheart!
OCEANA. [Stares at him.] How wonderful it is! Beyond all believing!
I'm stunned by it . . . afraid of it. Tell me, Hal, were you ever
drunk?
HENRY. [Laughs.] Once or twice.
OCEANA. [Seriously.] I never was. But I've watched my people sometimes
and tried to understand it. And it's just that. Nature has made us
drunk!
HENRY. And that is what frightens you?
OCEANA. She has her purposes, Hal; and I don't want to be her blind
victim. But then, I look at you again, and wonder leaps up in me . . .
love, such as I never conceived of before; power . . . vision without
end. I seem to be a hundred times myself! It is as if barriers were
broken down within me . . . I see into new vistas of life.
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