I humble myself
before you... I beg you for forgiveness! Henry, I do love you! Don't you
believe me?

HENRY. [Faintly.] I believe you.

OCEANA. [Clenches her hands and turns resolutely.] You see, Hal, I knew
it! [He bows his head.] You can't get away from her. [She pauses.] You
understand it all now... what my instinct told me. You still love her,
you still belong to her. You would have gone away with me, and you would
still have been thinking about her--worrying about her. It would have
been tearing your soul in half. [She waits; he does not look at her; she
goes on, half to convince herself.] She is not big enough to give you
up. She could not say, "Oceana is young and needs you; you love Oceana,
and she will make you happy. Go with her." No, she would think of the
world and its conventions... she would be jealous and bitter. She would
eat her heart out... she would tear herself to pieces! And that would
tear you to pieces... you could never forget it. And there are the
children, Hal. It's true that you love them; you think about them all
the time... I know, for you speak of them. And she could take them away
from you, legally... how much chance would they ever have in life, if
she and her mother had the bringing up of them? Don't you see, Hal? What
can we do?

LETITIA. [Clinging to Henry's bosom.] Henry, I love you!

OCEANA. I want to play the game generously, Letitia; but it is all I
can do not to despise you... because he loves you, and it has meant so
little to you, you have done so little in return. That is the curse of
this thing you call marriage. You say to yourself that you've got him...
the law and the conventions will keep him for you... and so you can
treat him as you please. You'll take him off with you now, and you'll
set to work to get right back where you were before... yes, she will,
Hal. She'll try to wheedle you into backing down from this position. She
will weep and she will scold. But you stand firm... stand firm! What we
did was right... it was noble and true, and if more married people did
such things, it would be better for them.

LETITIA. [Clinging to Henry.] Henry, come home with me!

HENRY. All right, I'll come.

[He does not lift his head.]

OCEANA. Look at me. It's all right, Hal... it's all right.

[She speaks with intensity; they gaze into each other's eyes.]

HENRY. [Stretches out his hand to her.] Oceana... I'm sorry...

OCEANA. [With sudden emotion.] No, Hal! Go... go qui