LETITIA. [With concentrated hatred.] You dare! OCEANA. We have sent for you... LETITIA. WE have sent for you! OCEANA. Because we wished to talk things out with you in a sensible way. And you'll have to make up your mind to control yourself. LETITIA. [Sobbing.] Henry, you permit this shameful humiliation! OCEANA. Henry has nothing to do with this affair, Letitia. It is I who have to talk to you. LETITIA. [Bursts into hysterical weeping again.] Oh, that I should have lived to see this! OCEANA. You will find out before you get through that I mean to deal with you fairly. But you cannot accomplish anything by hysterics. LETITIA. Oh, oh, oh! OCEANA. And you had best believe me; you injure your case by refusing to act rationally. LETITIA. [Looks up, frightened.] What do you want with me? OCEANA. [Quietly.] In the first place, Letitia, I want to convey to you the information that your husband's relationship and mine has so far been what you would call innocent. LETITIA. What? OCEANA. I was a virgin when I came to Boston, and I am a virgin still. LETITIA, And you expect me to believe that? OCEANA. My dear, I don't care in the least whether you believe it or not. LETITIA. [Faintly.] But... OCEANA. What reason would I have to fear you? He is mine, if I want him. LETITIA. [Dazed.] Then what... why are you here? Why... OCEANA. I came here because I wished to get acquainted with him. And what chance have a man and woman to get acquainted with each other in the conventional world? LETITIA. [Stares at her; then, faintly.] But what... OCEANA. I wished to try him out... in body, mind and soul. I wished to know if he was the man for me. LETITIA. [Rushes to Henry.] Oh! Have you no decency left? Have you no mercy on me? What has come over you? HENRY. Letitia... OCEANA. Let me attend to this, Hal. LETITIA. Hal! OCEANA. That a woman could be married to a man for six years and continue to call him Henry, speaks volumes for the romance of their relationship! LETITIA. [To Henry.] Where's your sense of shame? OCEANA. You are taking the wrong line, Letitia. No such consideration has a moment's weight with us. LETITIA. [Catches her breath.] Since it seems that I am here at your mercy, I ask to know your pleasure? OCEANA. The reason that we have sent for you is that I might assure myself upon two points... first, as to whether your husband still loves you, and second, as to whether you still love him. LETITIA. You doubt that I love him? OCEANA. So far, Letitia, your actions have proceeded, not from love of him, but from hatred of me. LETITIA. Oh! And if I fail to measure up to your tests of love... OCEANA. [Triumphantly.] Then he is mine! LETITIA. And the fact that he is my husband... OCEANA. Is nothing! LETITIA. The fact that he vowed to keep faith with me... OCEANA. Is nothing! LETITIA. That I am dependent upon him for support... OCEANA. You have money of your own, Letitia.