The Melting-Pot Part 24

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, hoa.r.s.e_]

By name, David.

VERA Yes--David Quixano.

BARON A Jew!

VERA How did you know? Yes, he is a Jew, a n.o.ble Jew.

BARON A Jew n.o.ble!

[_He laughs bitterly._]

VERA Yes--even as you esteem n.o.bility--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! G.o.d 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 G.o.d--since there is only one G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 d.u.c.h.esse 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!