Precisely! Thank you for your intelligent contribution to this conversation. What is also brilliant about the way that the scene is written is that Rodgers and Hammerstein were so clearly aware of audiences and their expectations at that time. Audience of the 1940s would have expected an outpouring of emotion between the romantic leads and this gives it to them musically, with the twist provided in the specifics of the libretto. Audiences who had seen Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! would also have been familiar with the composing team's "not quite a love song" technique, which they employed to great effect in their earlier show with "People Will Say We're in Love". This takes that idea one step further and uses it as a means to more serious dramatic ends. It really does reveal how dedicated Rodgers and Hammerstein were in their commitment to their craft and in their desire to create musical theatre that through its integration could truly hold its own against any other theatrical form.

That's gotta be a record for a thread necro.

I agree. Even though I think it takes quite an amount of knowledge on the tradition of musical theatre to overcome what by the standards of contemporary popular music may seems sentimental today, I don't find this particular song mushy.

It feels rather restrained, because it on the surface pretends to be so matter of factly.

I kind of thought that, too, especially since it was my OP!
Funny, though, I didn't even sing that song for auditions that time. and have since done much more research into Carousel and the song. Still love the song, though. One of my favorites.