o fall in love with me.
There were three on this last steamer.

FREDDY. Yes.

OCEANA. You say to marry you. But it's difficult for me to imagine
myself marrying any man, no matter how much I loved him. One has to make
so many promises, you know.

FREDDY. How do you mean?

OCEANA. You have to "love, honor and obey."

FREDDY. But, Oceana! That's a mere form.

OCEANA. No, no. It's written in the laws. All kinds of things... people
don't realize it.

FREDDY. But surely... if you love a man... a decent man...

OCEANA. No decent man ought to ask a woman to sign away her
self-respect.

FREDDY. [Bewildered.] But then... then... what would you do?

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
when I had satisfied myself as to that, I would have found my mate. I
would say to him, "I wish you to be the father of my child." [She sits
again, brooding.] I would not exact pledges of him. I would say to him,
"I do not ask you to take care of me; I do not ask you to tak