[He comes nearer.]
VERA [Crossing toPappelmeister]
Herr Pappelmeister! When do you think you can produce it?
PAPPELMEISTER
Wunderbar!...
[Becoming half-conscious ofVera]
Four lumps....
[Waking up]
Bitte?
VERA
How soon can you produce it?
PAPPELMEISTER
How soon can he finish it?
VERA
Isn't it finished?
PAPPELMEISTER
I see von Finale scratched out and anoder not quite completed. But anyhow, ve couldn't broduce it before Saturday fortnight.
QUINCY
Saturday fortnight! Not time to get my crowd.
PAPPELMEISTER
Den ve say Saturday dree veeks. Yes?
QUINCY
Yes. Stop a minute! Did you say Saturday? That's my comic opera night! You thief!
PAPPELMEISTER
Somedings must be sagrificed.
MENDEL [Outside]
But youmustcome, David.
[The kitchen door opens, andMendeldrags in the boyishly shrinkingDavid.Pappelmeisterthumps with his umbrella,Veraclaps her hands,Quincy Davenportproduces his eyeglass and surveysDavidcuriously.]
VERA
Oh, Mr. Quixano, I am so glad! Mr. Davenport is going to produce your symphony in his wonderful music-room.
QUINCY
Yes, young man, I'm going to give you the smartest audience in America. And if Poppy is right, you're just going to rake in the dollars. America wants a composer.
PAPPELMEISTER [Raises hands emphatically.]
Ach Gott, ja!
VERA [ToDavid]
Why don't you speak? You're not angry with me for interfering——?
DAVID
I can never be grateful enough to you——
VERA
Oh, not to me. It is to Mr. Davenport you——
DAVID
And I can never be grateful enough to Herr Pappelmeister. It is an honour even to meet him.
[Bows.]
PAPPELMEISTER [Choking with emotion, goes and pats him on the back.]
Mein braver Junge!
VERA [Anxiously]
But it is Mr. Davenport——
DAVID
Before I accept Mr. Davenport's kindness, I must know to whom I am indebted—and if Mr. Davenport is the man who——
QUINCY
Who travelled with you to New York? Ha! Ha! Ha! No,I'monly the junior.
DAVID
Oh, I know, sir, you don't make the money you spend.
QUINCY
Eh?
VERA [Anxiously]
He means he knows you're not in business.
DAVID
Yes, sir; but is it true you are in pleasure?
QUINCY [Puzzled]
I beg your pardon?
DAVID
Are all the stories the papers print about you true?
QUINCY
Allthe stories. That's a tall order. Ha! Ha! Ha!
DAVID
Well, anyhow, is it true that——?
VERA
Mr. Quixano! Whatareyou driving at?
QUINCY
Oh, it's rather fun to hear what the masses read about me. Fire ahead. Is what true?
DAVID
That you were married in a balloon?
QUINCY
Ho! Ha! Ha! That's true enough. Marriage in high life, they said, didn't they? Ha! Ha! Ha!
DAVID
And is it true you live in America only two months in the year, and then only to entertain Europeans who wander to these wild parts?
QUINCY
Lucky for you, young man. You'll have an Italian prince and a British duke to hear your scribblings.
DAVID
And the palace where they will hear my scribblings—is it true that——?
VERA [Who has been on pins and needles]
Mr. Quixano, what possible——?
DAVID [Entreatingly holds up a hand.]
Miss Revendal!
[ToQuincy Davenport]
Is this palace the same whose grounds were turned into Venetian canals where the guests ate in gondolas—gondolas that were draped with the most wonderful trailing silks in imitation of the Venetian nobility in the great water fêtes?
QUINCY [Turns toVera]
Ah, Miss Revendal—what a pity you refused that invitation! It was a fairy scene of twinkling lights and delicious darkness—each couple had their own gondola to sup in, and their own side-canal to slip down. Eh? Ha! Ha! Ha!
DAVID
And the same night, women and children died of hunger in New York!
QUINCY [Startled, drops eyeglass.]
Eh?
DAVID [Furiously]
And this is the sort of people you would invite to hear my symphony—these gondola-guzzlers!
VERA
Mr. Quixano!
MENDEL
David!
DAVID
These magnificent animals who went into the gondolas two by two, to feed and flirt!
QUINCY [Dazed]
Sir!
DAVID
I should be a new freak for you for a new freak evening—I and my dreams and my music!
QUINCY
You low-down, ungrateful——
DAVID
Not for you and such as you have I sat here writing and dreaming; not for you who are killing my America!
QUINCY
YourAmerica, forsooth, you Jew-immigrant!
VERA
Mr. Davenport!
DAVID
Yes—Jew-immigrant! But a Jew who knows thatyour Pilgrim Fathers came straight out of his Old Testament, and that our Jew-immigrants are a greater factor in the glory of this great commonwealth than some of you sons of the soil. It is you, freak-fashionables, who are undoing the work of Washington and Lincoln, vulgarising your high heritage, and turning the last and noblest hope of humanity into a caricature.
QUINCY [Rocking with laughter]
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! Ho!
[ToVera.]
You never told me your Jew-scribbler was a socialist!
DAVID
I am nothing but a simple artist, but I come from Europe, one of her victims, and I know that she is a failure; that her palaces and peerages are outworn toys of the human spirit, and that the only hope of mankind lies in a new world. And here—in the land of to-morrow—you are trying to bring back Europe——
QUINCY [Interjecting]
I wish we could!——
DAVID
Europe with her comic-opera coronets and her worm-eaten stage decorations, and her pomp and chivalry built on a morass of crime and misery——
QUINCY [With sneering laugh]
Morass!
DAVID [With prophetic passion]
But you shall not kill my dream! There shall come a fire round the Crucible that will melt you and your breed like wax in a blowpipe——
QUINCY [Furiously, with clenched fist]
You——
DAVID
Americashallmake good...!
PAPPELMEISTER [Who has sat down and remained imperturbably seated throughout all this scene, springs up and waves his umbrella hysterically]
Hoch Quixano! Hoch! Hoch! Es lebe Quixano! Hoch!
QUINCY
Poppy! You're dismissed!
PAPPELMEISTER [Goes toDavidwith outstretched hand]
Danke.
[They grip hands.Pappelmeisterturns toQuincy Davenport.]
Comic Opera! Ouf!
QUINCY [Goes to street-door, at white heat.]
Are you coming, Miss Revendal?
[He opens the door.]
VERA [ToQuincy, but not moving]
Pray, pray, accept my apologies—believe me, if I had known——
QUINCY [Furiously]
Then stop with your Jew!
[Exit.]
MENDEL [Frantically]
But, Mr. Davenport—don't go! He is only a boy.
[Exit afterQuincy Davenport.]
You must consider——
DAVID
Oh, Herr Pappelmeister, you have lost your place!
PAPPELMEISTER
And saved my soul. Dollars are de devil. Now I must to an appointment.Auf baldiges Wiedersehen.
[He shakesDavid'shand.]
Fräulein Revendal!
[He takes her hand and kisses it. Exit.DavidandVerastand gazing at each other.]
VERA
What have you done? What have you done?
DAVID
What else could I do?
VERA
I hate the smart set as much as you—but as your ladder and your trumpet——
DAVID
I would not stand indebted to them. I know youmeant it for my good, but what would these Europe-apers have understood ofmyAmerica—the America of my music? They look back on Europe as a pleasure ground, a palace of art—but I know
[Getting hysterical]
it is sodden with blood, red with bestial massacres——
VERA [Alarmed, anxious]
Let us talk no more about it.
[She holds out her hand.]
Good-bye.
DAVID [Frozen, taking it, holding it]
Ah, you are offended by my ingratitude—I shall never see you again.
VERA
No, I am not offended. But I have failed to help you. We have nothing else to meet for.
[She disengages her hand.]
DAVID
Why will you punish me so? I have only hurt myself.
VERA
It is not apunishment.
DAVID
What else? When you are with me, all the air seems to tremble with fairy music played by some unseen fairy orchestra.
VERA [Tremulous]
And yet you wouldn't come in just now when I——
DAVID
I was too frightened of the others....
VERA [Smiling]
Frightened indeed!
DAVID
Yes, I know I became overbold—but to take all that magic sweetness out of my life for ever—you don't call that a punishment?
VERA [Blushing]
How could I wish to punish you? I was proud of you!
[Drops her eyes, murmurs]
Besides it would be punishingmyself.
DAVID [In passionate amaze]
Miss Revendal!... But no, it cannot be. It is too impossible.
VERA [Frightened]
Yes, too impossible. Good-bye.
[She turns.]
DAVID
But not for always?
[Verahangs her head. He comes nearer. Passionately]
Promise me that you—that I——
[He takes her hand again.]
VERA [Melting at his touch, breathes]
Yes, yes, David.
DAVID
Miss Revendal!
[She falls into his arms.]
VERA
My dear! my dear!
DAVID
It is a dream. You cannot care for me—you so far above me.
VERA
Above you, you simple boy? Your genius lifts you to the stars.
DAVID
No, no; it is you who lift me there——
VERA [Smoothing his hair]
Oh, David. And to think that I was brought up to despise your race.
DAVID [Sadly]
Yes, all Russians are.
VERA
But we of the nobility in particular.
DAVID [Amazed, half-releasing her]
You are noble?
VERA
My father is Baron Revendal, but I have long since carved out a life of my own.
DAVID
Then he will not separate us?
VERA
No.
[Re-embracing him.]
Nothing can separate us.
[A knock at the street-door. They separate. The automobile is heard clattering off.]
DAVID
It is my uncle coming back.
VERA [In low, tense tones]
Then I shall slip out. I could not bear a third. I will write.
[She goes to the door.]
DAVID
Yes, yes ... Vera.
[He follows her to the door. He opens it and she slips out.]
MENDEL [Half-seen at the door, expostulating]
You, too, Miss Revendal——?
[Re-enters.]
Oh, David, you have driven away all your friends.
DAVID [Going to window and looking afterVera]
Not all, uncle. Not all.
[He throws his arms boyishly round his uncle.]
I am so happy.
MENDEL
Happy?
DAVID
She loves me—Vera loves me.
MENDEL
Vera?
DAVID
Miss Revendal.
MENDEL
Have you lost your wits?
[He throwsDavidoff.]
DAVID
I don't wonder you're amazed. Maybe you thinkIwasn't. It is as if an angel should stoop down——
MENDEL [Hoarsely]
This is true? This is not some stupidPurimjoke?
DAVID
True and sacred as the sunrise.
MENDEL
But you are a Jew!
DAVID
Yes, and just think! She was bred up to despise Jews—her father was a Russian baron——
MENDEL
If she was the daughter of fifty barons, you cannot marry her.
DAVID [In pained amaze]
Uncle!
[Slowly]
Then your hankering after the synagogue was serious after all.
MENDEL
It is not so much the synagogue—it is the call of our blood through immemorial generations.
DAVID
Yousay that! You who have come to the heart of the Crucible, where the roaring fires of God are fusing our race with all the others.
MENDEL [Passionately]
Notourrace, not your race and mine.
DAVID
What immunity has our race?
[Meditatively]
The pride and the prejudice, the dreams and the sacrifices, the traditions and the superstitions, the fasts and the feasts, things noble and things sordid—they must all into the Crucible.
MENDEL [With prophetic fury]
The Jew has been tried in a thousand fires and only tempered and annealed.
DAVID
Fires of hate, not fires of love. That is what melts.
MENDEL [Sneeringly]
So I see.
DAVID
Your sneer is false. The love that melted me was not Vera's—it was the loveAmericashowed me—the day she gathered me to her breast.
MENDEL [Speaking passionately and rapidly]
Many countries have gathered us. Holland took us when we were driven from Spain—but we did not become Dutchmen. Turkey took us when Germany oppressed us, but we have not become Turks.
DAVID
These countries were not in the making. They wereold civilisations stamped with the seal of creed. In such countries the Jew may be right to stand out. But here in this new secular Republic we must look forward——
MENDEL [Passionately interrupting]
We must look backwards, too.
DAVID [Hysterically]
To what? To Kishineff?
[As if seeing his vision]
To that butcher's face directing the slaughter? To those——?
MENDEL [Alarmed]
Hush! Calm yourself!
DAVID [Struggling with himself]
Yes, I will calm myself—but how else shall I calm myself save by forgetting all that nightmare of religions and races, save by holding out my hands with prayer and music toward the Republic of Man and the Kingdom of God! The Past I cannot mend—its evil outlines are stamped in immortal rigidity. Take away the hope that I can mend the Future, and you make me mad.
MENDEL
You are mad already—your dreams are mad—the Jew is hated here as everywhere—you are false to your race.
DAVID
I keep faith with America. I have faith America will keep faith with us.
[He raises his hands in religious rapture toward the flag over the door.]
Flag of our great Republic, guardian of our homes, whose stars and——
MENDEL
Spare me that rigmarole. Go out and marry your Gentile and be happy.
DAVID
You turn me out?
MENDEL
Would you stay and break my mother's heart? You know she would mourn for you with the rending of garments and the seven days' sitting on the floor. Go! You have cast off the God of our fathers!
DAVID [Thundrously]
And the God of our children—doesHedemand no service?
[Quieter, coming toward his uncle and touching him affectionately on the shoulder.]
You are right—I do need a wider world.
[Expands his lungs.]
I must go away.
MENDEL
Go, then—I'll hide the truth—she must never suspect—lest she mourn you as dead.
FRAU QUIXANO [Outside, in the kitchen]
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
[Both men turn toward the kitchen and listen.]
KATHLEEN
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
FRAU QUIXANO AND KATHLEEN
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
MENDEL [Bitterly]
A merryPurim!
[The kitchen door opens and remains ajar.Frau Quixanorushes in, carryingDavid'sviolin and bow.Kathleenlooks in, grinning.]
FRAU QUIXANO [Hilariously]
Nu spiel noch! spiel!
[She holds the violin and bow appealingly towardDavid.]
MENDEL [Putting out a protesting hand]
No, no, David—I couldn't bear it.
DAVID
But I must! You said she mustn't suspect.
[He looks lovingly at her as he loudly utters these words, which are unintelligible to her.]
And it may be the last time I shall ever play for her.
[Changing to a mock merry smile as he takes the violin and bow from her]
Gewiss, Granny!
[He starts the same old Slavic dance.]
FRAU QUIXANO [Childishly pleased]
He! He! He!
[She claps on a false grotesque nose from her pocket.]
DAVID [Torn between laughter and tears]
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
MENDEL [Shocked]
Mutter!
FRAU QUIXANO
Un' du auch!
[She claps another false nose onMendel, laughing in childish glee at the effect. Then she starts dancing to the music, andKathleenslips in and joyously dances beside her.]
DAVID [Joining tearfully in the laughter]
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
[The curtain falls quickly. It rises again upon the picture ofFrau Quixanofallen back into a chair, exhausted with laughter, fanning herself with her apron, whileKathleenhas dropped breathless across the arm of the armchair;Davidis still playing on, andMendel, his false nose torn off, stands by, glowering. The curtain falls again and rises upon a final tableau ofDavidin his cloak and hat, stealing out of the door with his violin, casting a sad farewell glance at the old woman and at the home which hassheltered him.]
April, about a month later. The scene changes toMiss Revendal'ssitting-room at the Settlement House on a sunny day. Simple, pretty furniture: a sofa, chairs, small table, etc. An open piano with music. Flowers and books about. Fine art reproductions on walls. The fireplace is on the left. A door on the left leads to the hall, and a door on the right to the interior. A servant enters from the left, ushering inBaronandBaroness RevendalandQuincy Davenport. TheBaronis a tall, stern, grizzled man of military bearing, with a narrow, fanatical forehead and martinet manners, but otherwise of honest and distinguished appearance, with a short, well-trimmed white beard and well-cut European clothes. Although his dignity is diminished by the constant nervous suspiciousness of the Russian official, it is never lost; his nervousness, despite its comic side, being visibly the tragic shadow of his position. His English has only a touch of the foreign in accent and vocabulary and is much superior to his wife's, which comes to her through her French. TheBaronessis pretty and dressed in red in the height of Paris fashion, but blazes with barbaric jewels at neck and throat and wrist. She gestures freely with her hand, which, when ungloved, glitters with heavy rings. She is much younger than theBaronand self-consciously fascinating. Her parasol, which matches her costume, suggests the sunshine without.Quincy Davenportis in a smart spring suit with a motor dust-coat and cap, which last he lays down on the mantelpiece.
SERVANT
Miss Revendal is on the roof-garden. I'll go and tell her.
[Exit, toward the hall.]
BARON
A marvellous people, you Americans. Gardens in the sky!
QUINCY
Gardens, forsooth! We plant a tub and call it Paradise. No, Baron. New York is the great stone desert.
BARONESS
But ze big beautiful Park vere ve drove tru?
QUINCY
No taste, Baroness, modern sculpture and menageries! Think of the Medici gardens at Rome.
BARONESS
Ah, Rome!
[With an ecstatic sigh, she drops into an armchair. Then she takes out a dainty cigarette-case, pulls off her right-hand glove, exhibiting her rings, and chooses a cigarette. TheBaron, seeing this,produces his match-box.]
QUINCY
And now, dear Baron Revendal, having brought you safely to the den of the lioness—if I may venture to call your daughter so—I must leaveyouto do the taming, eh?
BARON
You are always of the most amiable.
[He strikes a match.]
BARONESS
Tout à fait charmant.
[TheBaronlights her cigarette.]
QUINCY [Bows gallantly]
Don't mention it. I'll just have my auto take me to the Club, and then I'll send it back for you.
BARONESS
Ah, zank you—zat street-car looks horreeble.
[She puffs out smoke.]
BARON
Quite impossible. What is to prevent an anarchist sitting next to you and shooting out your brains?
QUINCY
We haven't much of that here—I don't mean brains. Ha! Ha! Ha!
BARON
But I saw desperadoes spying as we came off your yacht.
QUINCY
Oh, that was newspaper chaps.
BARON [Shakes his head]
No—they are circulating my appearance to all the gang in the States. They took snapshots.
QUINCY
Then you're quite safe from recognition.
[He sniggers.]
Didn't they ask you questions?
BARON
Yes, but I am a diplomat. I do not reply.
QUINCY
That's not very diplomatic here. Ha! Ha!
BARON
Diable!
[He claps his hand to his hip pocket, half-producing a pistol. TheBaronesslooks equally anxious.]
QUINCY
What's up?
BARON [Points to window, whispers hoarsely]
Regard! A hooligan peeped in!
QUINCY [Goes to window]
Only some poor devil come to the Settlement.
BARON [Hoarsely]
But under his arm—a bomb!
QUINCY [Shaking his head smilingly]
A soup bowl.
BARONESS
Ha! Ha! Ha!
QUINCY
What makes you so nervous, Baron?
[TheBaronslips back his pistol, a little ashamed.]
BARONESS
Ze Intellectuals and zeBund, zey all hate my husband because he is faizful to Christ
[Crossing herself]
and ze Tsar.
QUINCY
But the Intellectuals are in Russia.
BARON
They have their branches here—the refugees are the leaders—it is a diabolical network.
QUINCY
Well, anyhow,we'renot in Russia, eh? No, no, Baron, you're quite safe. Still, you can keep my automobile as long as you like—I've plenty.
BARON
A thousand thanks.
[Wiping his forehead.]
But surely no gentleman would sit in the public car, squeezed between working-men and shop-girls, not to say Jews and Blacks.
QUINCY
Itisdone here. But we shall change all that. Already we have a few taxi-cabs. Give us time, my dear Baron, give us time. You mustn't judge us by your European standard.
BARON
By the European standard, Mr. Davenport, you put our hospitality to the shame. From the moment you sent your yacht for us to Odessa——
QUINCY
Pray, don't ever speak of that again—you know how anxious I was to get you to New York.
BARON
Provided we have arrived in time!
QUINCY
That's all right, I keep telling you. They aren't married yet——
BARON [Grinding his teeth and shaking his fist]
Those Jew-vermin—all my life I have suffered from them!
QUINCY
We all suffer from them.
BARONESS
Zey are ze pests of ze civilisation.
BARON
But this supreme insult Vera shall not put on the blood of the Revendals—not if I have to shoot her down with my own hand—and myself after!
QUINCY
No, no, Baron, that's not done here. Besides, if you shoot her down, where doIcome in, eh?
BARON [Puzzled]
Whereyoucome in?
QUINCY
Oh, Baron! Surely you have guessed that it is not merely Jew-hate, but—er—Christian love. Eh?
[Laughing uneasily.]
BARON
You!
BARONESS [Clapping her hands]
Oh,charmant, charmant! But it ees a romance!
BARON
But you are married!
BARONESS [Downcast]
Ah, oui.Quel dommage, vat a peety!
QUINCY
You forget, Baron, we are in America. The law giveth and the law taketh away.
[He sniggers.]
BARONESS
It ees a vonderful country! But your vife—hein?—vould she consent?
QUINCY
She's mad to get back on the stage—I'll run a theatre for her. It's your daughter's consent that's the real trouble—she won't see me because I lost my temper and told her to stop with her Jew. So I look to you to straighten things out.
BARONESS
Mais parfaitement.
BARON [Frowning at her]
You go too quick, Katusha. What influence have I on Vera? Andyoushe has never even seen! To kick out the Jew-beast is one thing....
QUINCY
Well, anyhow, don'tshoother—shoot the beast rather.
[Sniggeringly.]
BARON
Shooting is too good for the enemies of Christ.
[Crossing himself.]
At Kishineff we stick the swine.
QUINCY [Interested]
Ah! I read about that. Did you see the massacre?
BARON
Which one? Give me a cigarette, Katusha.
[She obeys.]
We've had several Jew-massacres in Kishineff.
QUINCY
Have you? The papers only boomed one—four or five years ago—about Easter time, I think——
BARON
Ah, yes—when the Jews insulted the procession of the Host!
[Taking a light from the cigarette in his wife's mouth.]
QUINCY
Did they? I thought——
BARON [Sarcastically]
I daresay. That's the lies they spread in the West. They have the Press in their hands, damn 'em. But you see I was on the spot.
[He drops into a chair.]
I had charge of the whole district.
QUINCY [Startled]
You!
BARON
Yes, and I hurried a regiment up to teach the blaspheming brutes manners——
[He puffs out a leisurely cloud.]
QUINCY [Whistling]
Whew!... I—I say, old chap, I mean Baron, you'd better not say that here.
BARON
Why not? I am proud of it.
BARONESS
My husband vas decorated for it—he has ze order of St. Vladimir.
BARON [Proudly]
Second class! Shall we allow these bigots to mock at all we hold sacred? The Jews are the deadliest enemies of our holy autocracy and of the only orthodox Church. TheirBundis behind all the Revolution.
BARONESS
A plague-spot muz be cut out!
QUINCY
Well, I'd keep it dark if I were you. Kishineff is a back number, and we don't take much stock in the new massacres. Still, we're a bit squeamish——
BARON
Squeamish! Don't you lynch and roast your niggers?
QUINCY
Not officially. Whereas your Black Hundreds——
BARON
Black Hundreds! My dear Mr. Davenport, they are the white hosts of Christ
[Crossing himself]
and of the Tsar, who is God's vicegerent on earth. Have you not read the works of our sainted Pobiedonostzeff, Procurator of the Most Holy Synod?
QUINCY
Well, of course, I always felt there was another side to it, but still——
BARONESS
Perhaps he has right, Alexis. Our Ambassador vonce told me ze Americans are more sentimental zan civilised.
BARON
Ah, let them wait till they have ten million vermin overrunningtheircountry—we shall see how long they will be sentimental. Think of it! A burrowing swarm creeping and crawling everywhere, ugh! They ruin our peasantry with their loans and their drink shops, ruin our army with their revolutionary propaganda, ruin our professional classes by snatching all the prizes and professorships, ruin our commercialclasses by monopolising our sugar industries, our oil-fields, our timber-trade.... Why, if we gave them equal rights, our Holy Russia would be entirely run by them.
BARONESS
Mon dieu! C'est vrai.Ve real Russians vould become slaves.
QUINCY
Then what are you going to do with them?
BARON
One-third will be baptized, one-third massacred, the other third emigrated here.
[He strikes a match to relight his cigarette.]
QUINCY [Shudderingly]
Thank you, my dear Baron,—you've already sent me one Jew too many. We're going to stop all alien immigration.
BARON
To stopallalien—? But that is barbarous!
QUINCY
Well, don't let us waste our time on the Jew-problem ... our own little Jew-problem is enough, eh? Get rid of this little fiddler. ThenImay have a look in. Adieu, Baron.
BARON
Adieu.
[Holding his hand]
But you are not really serious about Vera?
[TheBaronessmakes a gesture of annoyance.]
QUINCY
Not serious, Baron? Why, to marry her is the only thing I have ever wanted that I couldn't get. It is torture! Baroness, I rely on your sympathy.
[He kisses her hand with a pretentious foreign air.]
BARONESS [In sentimental approval]
Ah! l'amour! l'amour!
[ExitQuincy Davenport, taking his cap in passing.]
You might have given him a little encouragement, Alexis.
BARON
Silence, Katusha. I only tolerated the man in Europe because he was a link with Vera.
BARONESS
You accepted his yacht and his——
BARON
If I had known his loose views on divorce——
BARONESS
I am sick of your scruples. You are ze only poor official in Bessarabia.
BARON
Be silent! Have I not forbidden——?
BARONESS [Petulantly]
Forbidden! Forbidden! All your life you have served ze Tsar, and you cannot afford a single automobile. A millionaire son-in-law is just vat you owe me.
BARON
What I owe you?
BARONESS
Yes, ven I married you, I vas tinking you had a good position. I did not know you were too honest to use it. You vere not open viz me, Alexis.
BARON
You knew I was a Revendal. The Revendals keep their hands clean....
[With a sudden start he tiptoes noiselessly to the door leading to the hall and throws it open. Nobody is visible. He closes it shamefacedly.]
BARONESS [Has shared his nervousness till the door was opened, but now bursts into mocking laughter]
If you thought less about your precious safety, and more about me and Vera——
BARON
Hush! You do not know Vera. You saw I was even afraid to give my name. She might have sent me away as she sent away the Tsar's plate of mutton.
BARONESS
The Tsar's plate of——?
BARON
Did I never tell you? When she was only a school-girl—at the Imperial High School—the Tsar on his annual visit tasted the food, and Vera, as the show pupil, was given the honour of finishing his Majesty's plate.
BARONESS [In incredulous horror]
And she sent it avay?
BARON
Gave it to a servant.
[Awed silence.]
And then you think I can impose a husband on her. No, Katusha, I have to win her love for myself, not for millionaires.
BARONESS [Angry again]
Alvays so affrightfully selfish!
BARON
I have no control over her, I tell you!
[Bitterly]
I never could control my womenkind.
BARONESS
Because you zink zey are your soldiers. Silence! Halt! Forbidden! Right Veel! March!
BARON [Sullenly]
I wish I did think they were my soldiers—I might try the lash.
BARONESS [Springing up angrily, shakes parasol at him]
You British barbarian!
VERA [Outside the door leading to the interior]
Yes, thank you, Miss Andrews. I know I have visitors.
BARON [Ecstatically]
Vera's voice!
[TheBaronesslowers her parasol. He looks yearningly toward the door. It opens. EnterVerawith inquiring gaze.]
VERA [With a great shock of surprise]
Father!!
BARON
Verotschka!My dearest darling!...
[He makes a movement toward her, but is checked by her irresponsiveness.]
Why, you've grown more beautiful than ever.
VERA
You in New York!
BARON
The Baroness wished to see America. Katusha, this is my daughter.
BARONESS [In sugared sweetness]
And mine, too, if she vill let me love her.
VERA [Bowing coldly, but still addressing her father]
But how? When?
BARON
We have just come and——
BARONESS [Dashing in]
Zat charming young man lent us his yacht—he is adoràhble.
VERA
What charming young man?
BARONESS
Ah, she has many, ze little coquette—ha! ha! ha!
[She touchesVeraplayfully with her parasol.]
BARON
We wished to give you a pleasant surprise.
VERA
It is certainly a surprise.
BARON [Chilled]
You are not very ... daughterly.
VERA
Do you remember when you last saw me? You did not claim me as a daughter then.
BARON [Covers his eyes with his hand]
Do not recall it; it hurts too much.
VERA
I was in the dock.
BARON
It was horrible. I hated you for the devil of rebellion that had entered into your soul. But I thanked God when you escaped.
VERA [Softened]
I think I was more sorry for you than for myself. I hope, at least, no suspicion fell on you.
BARONESS [Eagerly]
But it did—an avalanche of suspicion. He is still buried under it. Vy else did they make Skovaloff Ambassador instead of him? Even now he risks everyting to see you again. Ah,mon enfant, you owe your fazer a grand reparation!
VERA
What reparation can I possibly make?
BARON [Passionately]
You can love me again, Vera.
BARONESS [Stamping foot]
Alexis, you are interrupting——
VERA
I fear, father, we have grown too estranged—our ideas are so opposite——
BARON
But not now, Vera, surely not now? You are no longer
[He lowers his voice and looks around]
a Revolutionist?
VERA
Not with bombs, perhaps. I thank Heaven I was caught before I had done anypracticalwork. But if you think I accept the order of things, you are mistaken. In Russia I fought against the autocracy——
BARON
Hush! Hush!
[He looks round nervously.]
VERA
Here I fight against the poverty. No, father, a woman who has once heard the call will always be a wild creature.
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,yourVera 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 [ToBaroness]
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!