You’ll think it strange when I tell you. It was my mother.

LAVINIA —(with a start ) Ah!

BRANT —(dropping his voice to a reverent, hushed tone ) Yes, she had beautiful hair like your mother’s , that hung down to her knees, and big, deep, sad eyes that were blue as the Caribbean sea!

LAVINIA —(harshly ) What do looks amount to? I’m not a bit like her! Everybody knows I take after Father!

BRANT —(brought back with a shock, astonished at her tone ) But — you’re not angry at me for saying that, are you? (then filled with uneasiness and resolving he must establish himself on an intimate footing with her again — with engaging bluntness ) You’re puzzling today, Miss Lavinia. You’ll excuse me if I come out with it bluntly. I’ve lived most of my life at sea and in camps and I’m used to straight speaking. What are you holding against me? If I’ve done anything to offend you, I swear it wasn’t meant. (She is silent, staring before her with hard eyes, rigidly upright. He appraises her with a calculating look, then goes on. ) I wouldn’t have bad feeling come between us for the world. I may only be flattering myself, but I thought you liked me. Have you forgotten that night walking along the shore?

LAVINIA —(in a cold, hard voice ) I haven’t forgotten. Did Mother tell you you could kiss me?

BRANT — What — what do you mean? (But he at once attributes the question to her naïveté— laughingly ) Oh! I see! But, come now, Lavinia, you can’t mean, can you, I should have asked her permission?

LAVINIA — Shouldn’t you?

BRANT —(again uneasy — trying to joke it off ) Well, I wasn’t brought up that strictly and, should or shouldn’t, at any rate, I didn’t — and it wasn’t the less sweet for that! (Then at something in her face he hurriedly goes off on another tack. ) I’m afraid I gabbed too much that night. Maybe I bored you with my talk of clipper ships and my love for them?

LAVINIA —(dryly ) “Tall, white clippers,” you called them. You said they were like beautiful, pale women to you. You said you loved them more than you’d ever loved a woman. Is that true, Captain?

BRANT —(with forced gallantry ) Aye. But I meant, before I met you. (then thinking he has at last hit on the cause of her changed attitude toward him — with a laugh ) So that’s what you’re holding against me, is it? Well, I might have guessed. Women are jealous of ships. They always suspect the sea. They know they’re three of a kind when it comes to a man! (He laughs again but less certainly this time, as he regards her grim, set expression. ) Yes, I might have seen you didn’t appear much taken by my sea gamming that night. I suppose clippers are too old a story to the daughter of a ship builder. But unless I’m much mistaken, you were interested when I told you of the islands in the South Seas where I was shipwrecked my first voyage at sea.

LAVINIA —(in a dry, brittle tone ) I remember your admiration for the naked native women. You said they had found the secret of happiness because they had never heard that love can be a sin.

BRANT —(surprised — sizing her up puzzledly ) So you remember that, do you? (then romantically ) Aye! And they live in as near the Garden of Paradise before sin was discovered as you’ll find on this earth! Unless you’ve seen it, you can’t picture the green beauty of their land set in the blue of the sea! The clouds like down on the mountain tops, the sun drowsing in your blood, and always the surf on the barrier reef singing a croon in your ears like a lullaby! The Blessed Isles, I’d call them! You can forget there all men’s dirty dreams of greed and power!

LAVINIA — And their dirty dreams — of love?

BRANT —(startled again — staring at her uneasily ) Why do you say that? What do you mean, Lavinia?

LAVINIA — Nothing. I was only thinking — of your Blessed Isles.

BRANT —(uncertainly ) Oh! But you said —(Then with a confused, stupid persistence he comes closer to her, dropping his voice again to his love-making tone ) Whenever I remember those islands now, I will always think of you, as you walked beside me that night with your hair blowing in the sea wind and the moonlight in your eyes! (He tries to take her hand, but at his touch she pulls away and springs to her feet. )

LAVINIA —(with cold fury ) Don’t you touch me! Don’t you dare —! You liar! You —! (Then as he starts back in confusion, she seizes this opportunity to follow Seth’s advice — staring at him with deliberately insulting scorn ) But I suppose it would be foolish to expect anything but cheap romantic lies from the son of a low Canuck nurse girl!

BRANT —(stunned ) What’s that? (then rage at the insult to his mother overcoming all prudence — springs to his feet threateningly ) Belay, damn you!— or I’ll forget you’re a woman — no Mannon can insult her while I—

LAVINIA —(appalled now she knows the truth ) So — it is true — You are her son! Oh!

BRANT —(fighting to control himself — with harsh defiance ) And what if I am? I’m proud to be! My only shame is my dirty Mannon blood! So that’s why you couldn’t stand my touching you just now, is it? You’re too good for the son of a servant, eh? By God, you were glad enough before —!

LAVINIA —(fiercely ) It’s not true! I was only leading you on to find out things!

BRANT — Oh, no! It’s only since you suspected who I was! I suppose your father has stuffed you with his lies about my mother! But, by God, you’ll hear the truth of it, now you know who I am — And you’ll see if you or any Mannon has the right to look down on her!

LAVINIA — I don’t want to hear —(She starts to go toward the house. )

BRANT —(grabbing her by the arm — tauntingly ) You’re a coward, are you, like all Mannons, when it comes to facing the truth about themselves? (She turns on him defiantly. He drops her arm and goes on harshly. ) I’ll bet he never told you your grandfather, Abe Mannon, as well as his brother, loved my mother!

LAVINIA — It’s a lie!

BRANT — It’s the truth. It was his jealous revenge made him disown my father and cheat him out of his share of the business they’d inherited!

LAVINIA — He didn’t cheat him! He bought him out!

BRANT — Forced him to sell for one-tenth its worth, you mean! He knew my father and mother were starving! But the money didn’t last my father long! He’d taken to drink. He was a coward — like all Mannons — once he felt the world looked down on him. He skulked and avoided people. He grew ashamed of my mother — and me. He sank down and down and my mother worked and supported him. I can remember when men from the corner saloon would drag him home and he’d fall in the door, a sodden carcass.