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 after VERA]
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 throws DAVID off.]
DAVID
I don't wonder you're amazed. Maybe you think I wasn't. It is as if an angel should stoop down--
MENDEL [Hoarsely]
This is true? This is not some stupid Purim joke?
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
You say 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]
Not our race, 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 love America showed 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 were old 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-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,