The Melting-Pot by Israel Zangwill (great books to read TXT) 📖

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!

[The Baroness lowers her parasol. He looks yearningly toward the door. It opens. Enter Vera with 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 touches Vera playfully 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 any practical work. 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, 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.