MRS. KEENEY (_laughing hysterically_). It's the ice and the cold and the silence--they'd make anyone look strange.
KEENEY (_soothingly_). In a month or two, with good luck, three at the most, I'll have her filled with ile and then we'll give her everything she'll stand and p'int for home.
MRS. KEENEY. But we can't wait for that--I can't wait. I want to get home. And the men won't wait. They want to get home. It's cruel, it's brutal for you to keep them. You must sail back. You've got no excuse. There's clear water to the south now. If you've a heart at all, you've got to turn back.
KEENEY. A woman couldn't rightly understand my reason.
MRS. KEENEY (_wildly_). Because it's a stupid, stubborn reason. Oh, I heard you talking with the second mate. You're afraid the other captains will sneer at you because you didn't come back with a full ship. You want to live up to our silly reputation even if you do have to beat and starve men and drive me mad to do it.
KEENEY (_his jaw set stubbornly_). It ain't that, Annie. Them skippers would never dare sneer to my face. It ain't so much what anyone'd say--but--(_He hesitates, struggling to express his meaning._) You see--I've always done it--since my first voyage as skipper. I always come back--with a full ship--and--it don't seem right not to--somehow. I been always first whalin' skipper out o' Homeport, and--Don't you see my meanin', Annie? (_He glances at her. She is not looking at him but staring dully in front of her, not hearing a word he is saying._) Annie! (_She comes to herself with a start._) Best turn in, Annie, there's a good woman. You ain't well.
MRS. KEENEY (_resisting his attempts to guide her to the door in rear_). David! Won't you please turn back?
KEENEY (_gently_). I can't, Annie--not yet awhile. You don't see my meanin'. I got to git the ile.
MRS. KEENEY. It'd be different if you needed the money, but you don't. You've got more than plenty.
KEENEY (_impatiently_). It ain't the money I'm thinkin' of. D'you think I'm as mean as that?
MRS. KEENEY (_dully_). No--I don't know--I can't understand--(_Intensely_) Oh, I want to be home in the old house once more and see my own kitchen again, and hear a woman's voice talking to me and be able to talk to her. Two years! It seems so long ago--as if I'd been dead and could never go back.