I always had a specific period in mind for this, which may have been thanks to all the movies this song was in, and the fact that you rarely hear the full lyrical version. I felt this was a song about a young man having his last night on the town before being shipped off to Vietnam. The first verse describes the setting and his mindset. The second verse was him trying to convince her to make love before he had to leave. I assumed the miller was just that, the town miller who happened to be at the bar, telling some grandiose store to the other patrons. As he did this her face turned from one shade to a whiter shade of pale, either by the millers story, or the suggestion being made to her by the soldier. That is usually all you hear of the song, so in that version, if my story is correct, the girl seems apprehensive, and the soldier seems desperate. Her saying there is no reason, and the truth being plain to see, would be the possibility of pregnancy, and the possibility of his death. Always made me feel bad, because there is no closure to the story, and its open ended. Does the vestal virgin that's heading for the coast get his desire?. This vestal virgin becomes her, once I discovered the rest of the lyrics. Now they are both in service. He, still a soldier, her, the navy. The rest becomes his metaphors of the sea to his love, as she does indeed give in to the drunken one night love affair, all the while, the miller keeping everyone else's minds occupied with his tale.