The Melting-Pot Part 19

MENDEL [_Pa.s.sionately 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 G.o.d! 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 G.o.d of our fathers!

DAVID [_Thundrously_]

And the G.o.d of our children--does _He_ demand 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 merry _Purim_!

[_The kitchen door opens and remains ajar. FRAU QUIXANO rushes in, carrying DAVID'S violin and bow. KATHLEEN looks in, grinning._]

FRAU QUIXANO [_Hilariously_]

_Nu spiel noch! spiel!_ [_She holds the violin and bow appealingly toward DAVID._]

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 on MENDEL, laughing in childish glee at the effect. Then she starts dancing to the music, and KATHLEEN slips 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 of FRAU QUIXANO fallen back into a chair, exhausted with laughter, fanning herself with her ap.r.o.n, while KATHLEEN has dropped breathless across the arm of the armchair; DAVID is still playing on, and MENDEL, his false nose torn off, stands by, glowering. The curtain falls again and rises upon a final tableau of DAVID in 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 has sheltered him._]

Act III

_April, about a month later. The scene changes to MISS REVENDAL'S sitting-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 in BARON and BARONESS REVENDAL and QUINCY DAVENPORT. The BARON is 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. The BARONESS is 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 the BARON and self-consciously fascinating. Her parasol, which matches her costume, suggests the sunshine without. QUINCY DAVENPORT is 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. The BARON, 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 leave _you_ to do the taming, eh?