Part 16 (1/2)

MRS. MASTERSON. Henry!

FREDDY. Gee whiz!

LEt.i.tIA. Henry, I demand that you come home with me instantly.

OCEANA. Don't go.

LEt.i.tIA. [Almost speechless.] If you stay here, you stay alone!

OCEANA. [Rises, casts aside her robe, stretches wide her arms.] Let.i.tia! Look at me! Am I the sort of woman that you can safely leave your husband alone with?

LEt.i.tIA. [Stares at her terrified, then bursts into tears and flings herself into HENRY'S arms.] Henry!

OCEANA. Ah, yes! That is safer!

HENRY. [Supports LEt.i.tIA.] My dear! My dear!

LEt.i.tIA. Come home with me!

OCEANA. G.o.d, man, how I pity you! Bound in chains to a woman like that! And with all the world conspiring to hold you fast! How can you bear it? Do you expect to bear it forever? What will become of your soul? Oh, I pity you! I pity you!

LEt.i.tIA. [Hysterically.] Henry, take me home! Take me home at once!

HENRY. Yes, my dear, yes!

OCEANA. What is the spell they've laid upon you? You make me think of Gulliver... a giant stretched out upon the ground, impotent, bound fast with a million tiny threads! Wake up, man... wake up! You've only one life to live. You act as if you had a thousand.

LEt.i.tIA. Mother!

MRS. MASTERSON. How long is this to continue?

LEt.i.tIA. Henry, won't you stop listening to her?

OCEANA. He's not listening to me, Let.i.tia. He's listening to the voice of the universe, calling to him. The voice of unborn generations, clamoring, agonizing! What do you suppose it means, man... this storm that has shaken us? It is Nature's trumpet-call... it is the shout of discovery of the powers within us! For ages upon ages life has been preparing it... and now suddenly we meet... the barriers are shattered and flung down, the tides of being sweep us together!

MRS. MASTERSON. Oh! This is outrageous!

DR. MASTERSON. Oceana, Henry is married!

OCEANA. Married! Married! That is the sorcery with which you bind him! No longer a man at all, but some aborted thing... a relic! An eunuch! They mumble their incantations over you... the spell is done, and you sink back, cowed and whimpering! You are a machine, a domestic utensil! Never again are you to love and to dare to create No, there are other things in life for you... bread and b.u.t.ter, cooks and dinner parties, billiards and bridge-whist... that is your portion! A married man!

LEt.i.tIA. [Terrified.] Henry! For G.o.d's sake!

[He no longer returns her embraces, but stares at Oceana, fascinated.]

OCEANA. Don't you see, man? It's a dream! A nightmare! Rouse yourself, lift your head... and it's gone! Life is calling! Come away!

LEt.i.tIA. [Frantically.] Mother! Mother!