You awakened me, Savva. When you told me all that, my eyes were suddenly opened, and I began to love everything. Do you understand? I began to love it all. These walls--formerly I didn't notice them; now I am sorry for them--so sorry, I could cry. And the books and everything--each brick, each piece of wood to which man has applied his labor. Let's admit that it's poor stuff. Who says it's good? But that's why I love it--for its defects, its imperfections, its crooked lines, its unfulfilled hopes. For the labor and the tears. And all who hear you talking, Savva, will feel as I do, and will begin to love all that is old and dear and human. SAVVA I have nothing to do with you. LIPA Nothing to do with us? With whom then have you to do? No, Savva, you don't love anyone. You love only yourself and your dreams. He who loves men will not take away from them all they have. He will not regard his own wishes more than their lives. Destroy everything! Destroy Golgotha! Consider: _(with terror)_ destroy Golgotha! The brightest, the most glorious hope that ever was on earth! All right, you don't believe in Christ. But if you have a single drop of nobility in your nature, you must respect and honor His noble memory. He was also unhappy. He was crucified--crucified, Savva. You are silent? Have you nothing to say? SAVVA Nothing. LIPA I thought--I thought--if you succeeded in carrying out your plot--I thought I'd kill you--that I'd poison you like some noxious beast. SAVVA And if I don't succeed-- LIPA You are still hoping? SAVVA And if I don't succeed, I'll kill you. LIPA _(advancing a step toward him)_ Kill me! Kill me! Give me a chance to suffer for the sake of Christ. For the sake of Christ and for the sake of the people. SAVVA Yes. I'll kill you. LIPA Do you suppose I didn't think of it? Do you suppose I didn't think of it? Oh, Lord, to suffer for Thee! Is there higher happiness than that? SAVVA _(with a contemptuous gesture, pointing at Lipa)_ And that's a human being! That's one counted among the best! That's the kind in which they take pride! Ah me, how poor you are in good people! LIPA Insult! Mock! That's the way it has always been. They have always heaped insults upon us before they killed us. SAVVA No, I don't mean to insult you. How can I insult you? You are simply a silly woman. There have been many such in the past. There are many such to-day. You are simply a foolish, insignificant creature. You are even innocent, like all insignificant persons. And if I mean to kill you, there is no reason to be proud of it. Don't think you are an object specially worthy of my indignation. No, it would merely make matters a little easier for me. When I was chopping wood, and the axe in my raised arm struck the threshold instead of the log of wood, the jar was not so hard as if someone had arrested the motion of my arm. A raised hand must fall on something. LIPA And to think that this beast is my brother! SAVVA