FREDDY. They can't dock the steamer to-night... there's some tangle at the pier.
ETHEL. Did you go and see?
FREDDY. I telephoned about it. I didn't want to wait in this blizzard.
ETHEL. I'm so sorry!
FREDDY. Me, too. But there's no help for it.
ETHEL. So long as she doesn't miss to-morrow night! Did I read you what she said about that, Freddy? [Takes letter from pocket.] "I'll pray for fair weather, so that I may get there to see the beautiful dancing. There is nothing in all the world that I love more... my whole being seems to flow into the dance. I send you the music of my Sunrise Dance, that father composed for me. You can learn it, and I'll do it for you. I don't know, of course; but father used to think that I was wonderful in it.. and he had known all the great dances in Europe. It was the last thing I heard him play, before he went out in the boat, and I saw him perish before my eyes." Don't you think that she writes beautifully, Freddy?
FREDDY. Yes; it's surprising.
ETHEL, Oh, yes. Her father was an extraordinary man, Henry says... a musician and a poet. They had books and everything, apparently. You'd think she's been living in Europe.
FREDDY. I see.
ETHEL. Listen to this: [Reads.] "About my name... I forgot to explain. You see, Anna sounds like England... or New England... and I am not the least like those places. Father used to see me, as a little tot, diving through the breakers, and floating out in the sea, with the snow-white frigate-birds flashing by overhead; and he said I was the very spirit of the island and the wild, lonely ocean. So he called me Oceana, and that's the name I've always borne."