Ariel. I wish I didn’t have. I wish this was the last day of my life.
Ber. (aghast). Miss Freeman, you don’t know what you are saying. Something must have happened to pretty much upset you. You don’t look like a coward. I can’t somehow believe you are one.
Ariel (surprised). A coward?
Ber. It’s only a coward, a pretty contemptible one at that, who would rather die than face what’s coming to him.
Ariel (suddenly standing straight and throwing her head up). You are right. I didn’t think of that. Thank you, Captain Berry. That was just what I needed to hear. You—you spend a good deal of time over here in town, don’t you?
Ber. (smiling). Is that a reflection on my duties as keeper of Bay Point Light?
Ariel (hastily). Oh, no, no, no! I didn’t mean that. I was just thinking that you must like our town. I know you have an assistant, and any one doesn’t have to meet you but once to realize that your duty would stand before anything else in the world.
Ber. (pleased and touched). Why, Miss Freeman, I thank you for that from the bottom of my heart. You can’t understand how much I appreciate that coming from you.
Ariel. Why from me, especially? Oh!
(Drops the little box and a little ring.)