Part 10 (2/2)

HENRY. [Perplexed.] My eyes?

OCEANA. Your eyes. [Turns him toward the light; studies his eyes.] They dosed you with quinine! Malaria, I suppose?

HENRY. Why... yes. But how can you tell?

OCEANA. I can tell many things. Let me see your tongue.

HENRY. [Bewildered.] My tongue?

OCEANA. Your tongue.

HENRY. But what for?

OCEANA. I can tell more about a man by looking at his tongue for a minute than by listening to it for a week.

HENRY. But, Oceana-

OCEANA. I am in earnest.

HENRY. [Laughs.] Why... really...

OCEANA. Are you afraid?

HENRY. Good heavens, no!

OCEANA. Put it out. [He pats his tongue out and she examines it.] So! A man with a red tongue! And in a civilized city!

HENRY. Oughtn't it to be red?

OCEANA. And he doesn't know what it ought to be! How delicious! [She steps back from him.] And so you are Let.i.tia's husband. Tell me, are you happy with her?

HENRY. [Startled; stares at her intently.] No, no... you ought not to ask me that.

OCEANA. Why not?

HENRY. [In a low voice.] Because you know.

OCEANA. Yes, that's true. [A pause; she changes the subject.] I have heard my father speak of you often.

HENRY. He remembered me, did he? I was only twenty when he went away.

OCEANA. He said that he taught you to play single-stick.

HENRY. Ah yes, to be sure!

OCEANA. He taught me also.

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