Part 5

BARON But [_Lowering his voice_] those revolutionary Russian clubs here--you are not a member?

VERA I do not believe in Revolutions carried on at a safe distance. I have found my life-work in America.

BARON I am enchanted, Vera, enchanted.

BARONESS [_Gushingly_] Permit me to kiss you, _belle enfant_.

VERA I do not know you enough yet; I will kiss my father.

BARON [_With a great cry of joy_] Vera! [_He embraces her passionately._] At last! At last! I have found my little Vera again!

VERA No, father, _your_ Vera belongs to Russia with her mother and the happy days of childhood. But for their sakes---- [_She breaks down in emotion._]

BARON Ah, your poor mother!

BARONESS [_Tartly_] Alexis, I perceive I am too many! [_She begins to go toward the door._]

BARON No, no, Katusha. Vera will learn to love you, too.

VERA [_To BARONESS_] What does my loving you matter? I can never return to Russia.

BARONESS [_Pausing_] But ve can come here--often--ven you are married.

VERA [_Surprised_] When I am married? [_Softly, blushing_] You know?

BARONESS [_Smiling_] Ve know zat charming young man adores ze floor your foot treads on!

VERA [_Blushing_] You have seen David?

BARON [_Hoarsely_] David! [_He clenches his fist._]

BARONESS [_Half aside, as much gestured as spoken_] Sh! Leave it to me. [_Sweetly._] Oh, no, ve have not seen David.

VERA [_Looking from one to the other_] Not seen--? Then what--whom are you talking about?

BARONESS About zat handsome, quite adoràhble Mr. Davenport.

VERA Davenport!

BARONESS Who combines ze manners of Europe viz ze millions of America!

VERA [_Breaks into girlish laughter_] Ha! Ha! Ha! So Mr. Davenport has been talking to you! But you all seem to forget one small point--bigamy is not permitted even to millionaires.

BARONESS Ah, not boz at vonce, but----

VERA And do you think I would take another woman's leavings? No, not even if she were dead.

BARONESS You are insulting!

VERA I beg your pardon--I wasn't even thinking of you. Father, to put an end at once to this absurd conversation, let me inform you I am already engaged.

BARON [_Trembling, hoarse_] By name, David.

VERA Yes--David Quixano.

BARON A Jew!

VERA How did you know? Yes, he is a Jew, a noble Jew.

BARON A Jew noble! [_He laughs bitterly._]

VERA Yes--even as you esteem nobility--by pedigree. In Spain his ancestors were hidalgos, favourites at the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella; but in the great expulsion of 1492 they preferred exile in Poland to baptism.

BARON And you, a Revendal, would mate with an unbaptized dog?

VERA Dog! You call my husband a dog!

BARON Husband! God in heaven--are you married already?

VERA No! But not being unemployed millionaires like Mr. Davenport, we hold even our troth eternal. [_Calmer_] Our poverty, not your prejudice, stands in the way of our marriage. But David is a musician of genius, and some day----

BARONESS A fiddler in a beer-hall! She prefers a fiddler to a millionaire of ze first families of America!

VERA [_Contemptuously_] First families! I told you David's family came to Poland in 1492--some months before America was discovered.

BARON Christ save us! You have become a Jewess!

VERA No more than David has become a Christian. We were already at one--all honest people are. Surely, father, all religions must serve the same God--since there is only one God to serve.

BARONESS But ze girl is an ateist!

BARON Silence, Katusha! Leave me to deal with my daughter. [_Changing tone to pathos, taking her face between his hands_]

Oh, Vera, _Verotschka_, my dearest darling, I had sooner you had remained buried in Siberia than that---- [_He breaks down._]

VERA [_Touched, sitting beside him_] For you, father, I _was_ as though buried in Siberia. Why did you come here to stab yourself afresh?

BARON I wish to God I had come here earlier. I wish I had not been so nervous of Russian spies. Ah, _Verotschka_, if you only knew how I have pored over the newspaper pictures of you, and the reports of your life in this Settlement!

VERA You asked me not to send letters.

BARON I know, I know--and yet sometimes I felt as if I could risk Siberia myself to read your dear, dainty handwriting again.

VERA [_Still more softened_] Father, if you love me so much, surely you will love David a little too--for my sake.

BARON [_Dazed_] I--love--a Jew? Impossible. [_He shudders._]

VERA [_Moving away, icily_] Then so is any love from me to you. You have chosen to come back into my life, and after our years of pain and separation I would gladly remember only my old childish affection. But not if you hate David. You must make your choice.

BARON [_Pitifully_] Choice? I have no choice. Can I carry mountains? No more can I love a Jew. [_He rises resolutely._]

BARONESS [_Who has turned away, fretting and fuming, turns back to her husband, clapping her hands_] Bravo!

VERA [_Going to him again, coaxingly_] I don't ask you to carry mountains, but to drop the mountains you carry--the mountains of prejudice. Wait till you see him.

BARON I will not see him.

VERA Then you will hear him--he is going to make music for all the world. You can't escape him, _papasha_, you with your love of music, any more than you escaped Rubinstein.

BARONESS Rubinstein vas not a Jew.

VERA Rubinstein was a Jewish boy-genius, just like my David.

BARONESS But his parents vere baptized soon after his birth. I had it from his patroness, ze Grande Duchesse Helena Pavlovna.

VERA And did the water outside change the blood within? Rubinstein was our Court pianist and was decorated by the Tsar. And you, the Tsar's servant, dare to say you could not meet a Rubinstein.

BARON [_Wavering_] I did not say I could not meet a _Rubinstein_.

VERA You practically said so. David will be even greater than Rubinstein. Come, father, I'll telephone for him; he is only round the corner.

BARONESS [_Excitedly_] Ve vill not see him!

VERA [_Ignoring her_] He shall bring his violin and play to you. There! You see, little father, you are already less frowning--now take that last wrinkle out of your forehead. [_She caresses his forehead._] Never mind! David will smooth it out with his music as his Biblical ancestor smoothed that surly old Saul.

BARONESS Ve vill not hear him!

BARON Silence, Katusha! Oh, my little Vera, I little thought when I let you study music at Petersburg----

VERA [_Smiling wheedlingly_] That I should marry a musician. But you see, little father, it all ends in music after all. Now I will go and perform on the telephone, I'm not angel enough to bear one in here. [_She goes toward the door of the hall, smiling happily._]

BARON [_With a last agonized cry of resistance_] Halt!

VERA [_Turning, makes mock military salute_] Yes, _papasha_.

BARON [_Overcome by her roguish smile_] You--I--he--do you love this J--this David so much?

VERA [_Suddenly tragic_] It would kill me to give him up. [_Resuming smile_] But don't let us talk of funerals on this happy day of sunshine and reunion. [_She kisses her hand to him and exit toward the hall._]

BARONESS [_Angrily_] You are in her hands as vax!

BARON She is the only child I have ever had, Katusha. Her baby arms curled round my neck; in her baby sorrows her wet face nestled against little father's. [_He drops on a chair, and leans his head on the table._]

BARONESS [_Approaching tauntingly_] So you vill have a Jew son-in-law!

BARON You don't know what it meant to me to feel her arms round me again.

BARONESS And a hook-nosed brat to call you grandpapa, and nestle his greasy face against yours.

BARON [_Banging his fist on the table_] Don't drive me mad! [_His head drops again._]

BARONESS Then drive me home--I vill not meet him.... Alexis! [_She taps him on the shoulder with her parasol. He does not move._] Alexis Ivanovitch! Do you not listen!... [_She stamps her foot._] Zen I go to ze hotel alone. [_She walks angrily toward the hall. Just before she reaches the door, it opens, and the servant ushers in HERR PAPPELMEISTER with his umbrella. The BARONESS'S tone changes instantly to a sugared society accent._] How do you do, Herr Pappelmeister? [_She extends her hand, which he takes limply._] You don't remember me? _Non?_ [_Exit servant._] Ve vere with Mr. Quincy Davenport at Wiesbaden---ze Baroness Revendal.

PAPPELMEISTER _So!_ [_He drops her hand._]

BARONESS Yes, it vas ze Baron's entousiasm for you zat got you your present position.

PAPPELMEISTER [_Arching his eyebrows_] _So!_

BARONESS Yes--zere he is! [_She turns toward the BARON._] Alexis, rouse yourself! [_She taps him with her parasol._] Zis American air makes ze Baron so sleepy.

BARON [_Rises dazedly and bows_] Charmed to meet you, Herr----

BARONESS Pappelmeister! You remember ze great Pappelmeister.

BARON [_Waking up, becomes keen_] Ah, yes, yes, charmed--why do you never bring your orchestra to Russia, Herr Pappelmeister?

PAPPELMEISTER [_Surprised_] Russia? It never occurred to me to go to Russia--she seems so uncivilised.

BARONESS [_Angry_] Uncivilised! Vy, ve have ze finest restaurants in ze vorld! And ze best telephones!

PAPPELMEISTER _So?_

BARONESS Yes, and the most beautiful ballets--Russia is affrightfully misunderstood. [_She sweeps away in burning indignation. PAPPELMEISTER murmurs in deprecation. Re-enter VERA from the hall. She is gay and happy._]

VERA He is coming round at once---- [_She utters a cry of pleased surprise._] Herr Pappelmeister! This is indeed a pleasure! [_She gives PAPPELMEISTER her hand, which he kisses._]

BARONESS [_Sotto voce to the BARON_] Let us go before he comes. [_The BARON ignores her, his eyes hungrily on VERA._]

PAPPELMEISTER [_To VERA_] But I come again--you have visitors.

VERA [_Smiling_] Only my father and----

PAPPELMEISTER [_Surprised_] Your fader? _Ach so!_ [_He taps his forehead._] Revendal!

BARONESS [_Sotto voce to the BARON_] I vill not meet a Jew, I tell you.

PAPPELMEISTER But you vill vant to talk to your fader, and all _I_ vant is Mr. Quixano's address. De Irish maiden at de house says de bird is flown.

VERA [_Gravely_] I don't know if I ought to tell you where the new nest is----

PAPPELMEISTER [_Disappointed_] _Ach!_

VERA [_Smiling_] But I will produce the bird.

PAPPELMEISTER [_Looks round_] You vill broduce Mr. Quixano?

VERA [_Merrily_] By clapping my hands. [_Mysteriously_] I am a magician.

BARON [_Whose eyes have been glued on VERA_] You are, indeed! I don't know how you have bewitched me. [_The BARONESS glares at him._]

VERA Dear little father! [_She crosses to him and strokes his hair._] Herr Pappelmeister, tell father about Mr. Quixano's music.

PAPPELMEISTER [_Shaking his head_] Music cannot be talked about.

VERA [_Smiling_] That's a nasty one for the critics. But tell father what a genius Da--Mr. Quixano is.

BARONESS [_Desperately intervening_] Good-bye, Vera. [_She thrusts out her hand, which VERA takes._] I have a headache. You muz excuse me. Herr Pappelmeister, _au plaisir de vous revoir_. [_PAPPELMEISTER hastens to the door, which he holds open. The BARONESS turns and glares at the BARON._]

BARON [_Agitated_] Let me see you to the auto----

BARONESS You could see me to ze hotel almost as quick.

BARON [_To VERA_] I won't say good-bye, _Verotschka_--I shall be back. [_He goes toward the hall, then turns._] You will keep your Rubinstein waiting? [_VERA smiles lovingly._]

BARONESS You are keeping _me_ vaiting. [_He turns quickly. Exeunt BARON and BARONESS._]

PAPPELMEISTER And now broduce Mr. Quixano!

VERA Not so fast. What are you going to do with him?

PAPPELMEISTER Put him in my orchestra!

VERA [_Ecstatic_] Oh, you dear! [_Then her tone changes to disappointment._] But he won't go into Mr. Davenport's orchestra.

PAPPELMEISTER It is no more Mr. Davenport's orchestra. He fired me, don't you remember? Now I boss--how say you in American?

VERA [_Smiling_] Your own show.

PAPPELMEISTER _Ja_, my own band. Ven I left dat comic opera millionaire, dey all shtick to me almost to von man.

VERA How nice of them!

PAPPELMEISTER All egsept de Christian--he vas de von man. He shtick to de millionaire. So I lose my brincipal first violin.

VERA And Mr. Quixano is to--oh, how delightful! [_She claps her hands girlishly._]

PAPPELMEISTER [_Looks round mischievously_] _Ach_, de magic failed.

VERA [_Puzzled_] Eh!

PAPPELMEISTER You do not broduce him. You clap de hands--but you do not broduce him. Ha! Ha! Ha! [_He breaks into a great roar of genial laughter._]

VERA [_Chiming in merrily_] Ha! Ha! Ha! But I said I have to know everything first. Will he get a good salary?

PAPPELMEISTER Enough to keep a vife and eight children!

VERA [_Blushing_] But he hasn't a----

PAPPELMEISTER No, but de Christian had--he get de same--I mean salary, ha! ha! ha! not children. Den he can be independent--vedder de fool-public like his American symphony or not--_nicht wahr?_

VERA You _are_ good to us---- [_Hastily correcting herself_] to Mr. Quixano.

PAPPELMEISTER [_Smiling_] And aldough you cannot broduce him, I broduce his symphony. _Was?_

VERA Oh, Herr Pappelmeister! You are an angel.

PAPPELMEISTER _Nein, nein, mein liebes Kind!_ I fear I haf not de correct shape for an angel. [_He laughs heartily. A knock at the door from the hall._]

VERA [_Merrily_] _Now_ I clap my hands. [_She claps._] Come! [_The door opens._] Behold him! [_She makes a conjurer's gesture. DAVID, bare-headed, carrying his fiddle, opens the door, and stands staring in amazement at PAPPELMEISTER._]

DAVID I thought you asked me to meet your father.

PAPPELMEISTER She is a magician. She has changed us. [_He waves his umbrella._] Hey presto, _was_? Ha! Ha! Ha! [_He goes to DAVID, and shakes hands._] _Und wie geht's?_ I hear you've left home.

DAVID Yes, but I've such a bully cabin----

PAPPELMEISTER [_Alarmed_] You are sailing avay?

VERA [_Laughing_] No, no--that's only his way of describing his two-dollar-a-month garret.

DAVID Yes--my state-room on the top deck!

VERA [_Smiling_] Six foot square.

DAVID But three other passengers aren't squeezed in, and it never pitches and tosses. It's heavenly.

PAPPELMEISTER [_Smiling_] And from heaven you flew down to blay in dat beer-hall. _Was?_ [_DAVID looks surprised._] _I_ heard you.

DAVID You! What on earth did you go _there_ for?

PAPPELMEISTER Vat on earth does one go to a beer-hall for? Ha! Ha! Ha! For vawter! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ven I hear you blay, I dink mit myself--if my blans succeed and I get Carnegie Hall for Saturday Symphony Concerts, dat boy shall be one of my first violins. _Was?_ [_He slaps DAVID on the left shoulder._]

DAVID [_Overwhelmed, ecstatic, yet wincing a little at the slap on his wound._] Be one of your first---- [_Remembering_] Oh, but it is impossible.

VERA [_Alarmed_] Mr. Quixano! You must not refuse.

DAVID But does Herr Pappelmeister know about the wound in my shoulder?

PAPPELMEISTER [_Agitated_] You haf been vounded?

DAVID Only a legacy from Russia--but it twinges in some weathers.

PAPPELMEISTER And de pain ubsets your blaying?

DAVID Not so much the pain--it's all the dreadful memories--

VERA [_Alarmed_] Don't talk of them.

DAVID I _must_ explain to Herr Pappelmeister--it wouldn't be fair. Even now [_Shuddering_] there comes up before me the bleeding body of my mother, the cold, fiendish face of the Russian officer, supervising the slaughter----

VERA Hush! Hush!

DAVID [_Hysterically_] Oh, that butcher's face--there it is--hovering in the air, that narrow, fanatical forehead, that----

PAPPELMEISTER [_Brings down his umbrella with a bang_] _Schluss!_ No man ever dared break down under me. My baton will beat avay all dese faces and fancies. Out with your violin! [_He taps his umbrella imperiously on the table._] _Keinen Mut verlieren!_ [_DAVID takes out his violin from its case and puts it to his shoulder, PAPPELMEISTER keeping up a hypnotic torrent of encouraging German cries._] _Also! Fertig! Anfangen!_ [_He raises and waves his umbrella like a baton._] Von, dwo, dree, four----

DAVID [_With a great sigh of relief_] Thanks, thanks--they are gone already.

PAPPELMEISTER Ha! Ha! Ha! You see. And ven ve blay your American symphony----

DAVID [_Dazed_] You will play my American symphony?

VERA [_Disappointed_] Don't you jump for joy?

DAVID [_Still dazed but ecstatic_] Herr Pappelmeister! [_Changing back to despondency_] But what certainty is there your Carnegie Hall audience would understand me? It would be the same smart set. [_He drops dejectedly into a chair and lays down his violin._]

PAPPELMEISTER _Ach, nein._ Of course, some--ve can't keep peoble out merely because dey pay for deir seats. _Was?_ [_He laughs._]

DAVID It was always my dream to play it first to the new immigrants--those who have known the pain of the old world and the hope of the new.

PAPPELMEISTER Try it on the dog. _Was?_

DAVID Yes--on the dog that here will become a man!

PAPPELMEISTER [_Shakes his head_] I fear neider dogs nor men are a musical breed.

DAVID The immigrants will not understand my music with their brains or their ears, but with their hearts and their souls.

VERA Well, then, why shouldn't it be done here--on our Roof-Garden?

DAVID [_Jumping up_] A _Bas-Kôl_! A _Bas-Kôl_!

VERA What _are_ you talking?

DAVID Hebrew! It means a voice from heaven.

VERA Ah, but will Herr Pappelmeister consent?

PAPPELMEISTER [_Bowing_] Who can disobey a voice from heaven?... But ven?

VERA On some holiday evening.... Why not the Fourth of July?

DAVID [_Still more ecstatic_] Another _Bas-Kôl_!... My American Symphony! Played to the People! Under God's sky! On Independence Day! With all the---- [_Waving his hand expressively, sighs voluptuously._] That will be too perfect.

PAPPELMEISTER [_Smiling_] Dat has to be seen. You must permit me to invite----

DAVID [_In horror_] Not the musical critics!

PAPPELMEISTER [_Raising both hands with umbrella in equal horror_] _Gott bewahre!_ But I'd like to invite all de persons in New York who really undershtand music.

VERA Splendid! But should we have room?

PAPPELMEISTER Room? I vant four blaces.

VERA [_Smiling_] You are severe! Mr. Davenport was right.

PAPPELMEISTER [_Smiling_] Perhaps de oders vill be out of town. _Also!_ [_Holding out his hand to DAVID_] You come to Carnegie to-morrow at eleven. Yes? _Fräulein._ [_Kisses her hand._] _Auf Wiedersehen!_ [_Going_] On de Roof-Garden--_nicht wahr?_

VERA [_Smiling_] Wind and weather permitting.

PAPPELMEISTER I haf alvays mein umbrella. _Was?_ Ha! Ha! Ha!

VERA [_Murmuring_] Isn't he a darling? Isn't he----?

PAPPELMEISTER [_Pausing suddenly_] But ve never settled de salary.

DAVID Salary! [_He looks dazedly from one to the other._] For the honour of playing in your orchestra!

PAPPELMEISTER Shylock!!... Never mind--ve settle de pound of flesh to-morrow. _Lebe wohl!_ [_Exit, the door closes._]

VERA [_Suddenly miserable_] How selfish of you, David!

DAVID Selfish, Vera?

VERA Yes--not to think of your salary. It looks as if you didn't really love me.

DAVID Not love you? I don't understand.

VERA [_Half in tears_] Just when I was so happy to think that now we shall be able to marry.

DAVID Shall we? Marry? On my salary as first violin?

VERA Not if you don't want to.

DAVID Sweetheart! Can it be true? How do you know?

VERA [_Smiling_] _I'm_ not a Jew. I asked.

DAVID My guardian angel! [_Embracing her. He sits down, she lovingly at his feet._]

VERA [_Looking up at him_] Then you _do_ care?

DAVID What a question!

VERA And you don't think wholly of your music and forget me?

DAVID Why, you are behind all I write and play!

VERA [_With jealous passion_] Behind? But I want to be before! I want you to love me first, before everything.

DAVID I do put you before everything.

VERA You are sure? And nothing shall part us?

DAVID Not all the seven seas could part you and me.

VERA And you won't grow tired of me--not even when you are world-famous----?

DAVID [_A shade petulant_] Sweetheart, considering I should owe it all to you----

VERA [_Drawing his head down to her breast_] Oh, David! David! Don't be angry with poor little Vera if she doubts, if she wants to feel quite sure. You see father has talked so terribly, and after all I was brought up in the Greek Church, and we oughtn't to cause all this suffering unless----

DAVID Those who love us _must_ suffer, and _we_ must suffer in their suffering. It is live things, not dead metals, that are being melted in the Crucible.

VERA Still, we ought to soften the suffering as much as----

DAVID Yes, but only Time can heal it.

VERA [_With transition to happiness_] But father seems half-reconciled already! Dear little father, if only he were not so narrow about Holy Russia!

DAVID If only _my_ folks were not so narrow about Holy Judea! But the ideals of the fathers shall not be foisted on the children. Each generation must live and die for its own dream.

VERA Yes, David, yes. You are the prophet of the living present. I am so happy. [_She looks up wistfully._] You are happy, too?

DAVID I am dazed--I cannot realise that all our troubles have melted away--it is so sudden.

VERA You, David? Who always see everything in such rosy colours? Now that the whole horizon is one great splendid rose, you almost seem as if gazing out toward a blackness----

DAVID We Jews are cheerful in gloom, mistrustful in joy. It is our tragic history----

VERA But you have come to end the tragic history; to throw off the coils of the centuries.

DAVID [_Smiling again_] Yes, yes, Vera. You bring back my sunnier self. I must be a pioneer on the lost road of happiness. To-day shall be all joy, all lyric ecstasy. [_He takes up his violin._] Yes, I will make my old fiddle-strings _burst_ with joy! [_He dashes into a jubilant tarantella. After a few bars there is a knock at the door leading from the hall; their happy faces betray no sign of hearing it; then the door slightly opens, and BARON REVENDAL'S head looks hesitatingly in. As DAVID perceives it, his features work convulsively, his string breaks with a tragic snap, and he totters backward into VERA'S arms. Hoarsely_] The face! The face!

VERA David--my dearest!

DAVID [_His eyes closed, his violin clasped mechanically_] Don't be anxious--I shall be better soon--I oughtn't to have talked about it--the hallucination has never been so complete.

VERA Don't speak--rest against Vera's heart--till it has passed away. [_The BARON comes dazedly forward, half with a shocked sense of VERA'S impropriety, half to relieve her of her burden. She motions him back._] This is the work of your Holy Russia.

BARON [_Harshly_] What is the matter with him? [_DAVID'S violin and bow drop from his grasp and fall on the table._]

DAVID The voice! [_He opens his eyes, stares frenziedly at the BARON, then struggles out of VERA'S arms._]

VERA [_Trying to stop him_] Dearest----

DAVID Let me go. [_He moves like a sleep-walker toward the paralysed BARON, puts out his hand, and testingly touches the face._]

BARON [_Shuddering back_] Hands off!

DAVID [_With a great cry_] A-a-a-h! It is flesh and blood. No, it is stone--the man of stone! Monster! [_He raises his hand frenziedly._]

BARON [_Whipping out his pistol_] Back, dog! [_VERA darts between them with a shriek._]

DAVID [_Frozen again, surveying the pistol stonily_] Ha! You want _my_ life, too. Is the cry not yet loud enough?

BARON The cry?

DAVID [_Mystically_] Can you not hear it? The voice of the blood of my brothers crying out against you from the ground? Oh, how can you bear not to turn that pistol against yourself and execute upon yourself the justice which Russia denies you?

BARON Tush! [_Pocketing the pistol a little shamefacedly._]

VERA Justice on himself? For what?

DAVID For crimes beyond human penalty, for obscenities beyond human utterance, for----

VERA You are raving.

DAVID Would to heaven I were!

VERA But this is my father.

DAVID Your father!... God! [_He staggers._]

BARON [_Drawing her to him_] Come, Vera, I told you----

VERA [_Frantically, shrinking back_] Don't touch me!