Ralph

Oh, now wait! I want some flowers; please hang about my neck A dozen lais; and give me half a peck Of nice bouquets; then I will hire a band And celebrate my entrance to your land. I’ll dance the Hula, up and down the street And cry Aloha, to each girl I meet; And if she frowns, and calls me cad, and churl, I’ll shout, Long Live the New Hawaiian Girl— Rah, rah, rah, Yale, Yale, Yale!

[A Hawaiian Band is heard approaching.]

GIRL (laughingly, as she hangs lais about his neck)

Well, there’s your band; and since you are so kind, To purchase all my flowers, I’ve half a mind To favour you with, not the Hula, sir, But something more refined, and prettier. I’ll teach it to you; ask the band out there To play the Hula Kui dancing air; Then follow all I do, and copy me. This is the way it starts, now one, two, three.

[After the dance ends, RALPH approaches the GIRL with tense face and speaks with great seriousness.]

Girl, though I do not even know your name, Yet here I stand, and offer you my own; It was for you I came, for you alone, Across the half world. I have never known Forgetfulness, since first your face I saw. In coming here, I but obeyed Love’s law; I thought it fancy, passion, or caprice; I know now it is Love.

FLOWER GIRL (with emotion)

I pray you, cease; You do not understand yourself; go, go;

[Urges him towards exit.

RALPH (seizing her hand)

I will not go until I hear you say That you remember even as I do That brief encounter on the street one day.

[FLOWER GIRL turns her face away and tries to free her hand.]

RALPH (exultantly)

Oh, it is Fate; and Fate we must obey.

[Takes ring from his finger.]

Let the ship go; but with my heart I stay.

[Attempts to place ring on GIRL’S finger. She wrenches her hand free, and stands with both hands behind her as she speaks with suppressed emotion.]

The heart of every Island girl on earth I think hides one sweet dream, and it is this; To one day meet a man of higher birth— To win his heart,—to feel his tender kiss— And sail with him to some far distant land. This too has been my dream; wherein your face Shone like a beacon.

[Repels RALPH as he starts forward.]

But I know your race, Too well, too well. I know how such dreams end, You could not claim me in your land, my friend, For colour prejudice is rampant there.

RALPH (impetuously)

But I will stay for ever here, I swear,—