OCEANA. [Watches him, then laughs to herself.] Boston is such a funny
place!

FREDDY. Hey?

OCEANA. Let us leave marriage out now . . . let us talk of love.
Realize how much more serious it is to a woman than it is to a man. A
man meets a woman and he finds her beautiful, and his blood begins to
boil, and he says: "I adore you." And so she gives herself to him; and
then, the next morning, he goes off and forgets all about it.

FREDDY. No, no!

OCEANA. I don't say you, Freddy. But it's happened that way. The
woman, though . . . she doesn't forget. She carries a reminder. And
it's not only that she has the burden of the child . . . the anguish
of the birth . . . the task of suckling and rearing it. It's that she
has a miniature of the man with her all the rest of her days. She has
his soul there . . . blended with the thing she loves most of all in
the world. And so, don't you see how careful she has to be, how
desperately important the thing is to her? [She sits lost in thought.]
I have never been in love, Freddy, not the least little bit. I have
never felt that call in my blood. But some day I shall feel it; and
when I do, I shall take that man as if before a court of judgment. I
shall take him away with me. I shall ask myself not merely, "Is he
beautiful and strong of body?" but, "Is he beautiful and strong in
soul?" I would not ask that he be learned . . . he might not chance to
be a cultured man. But he would be a man of power, he would be a man
who could rule himself, he would be a soul without base alloy. And