Jakie, I want you to do only what is in your heart. Answer me: Are you singing tonight because you love me and your Papa and your God—because you want to be in the Synagogue on the Day of Atonement—or is your heart far away in theatres with jazz music? JACK [_Turning upon_ MARY _and_ LEE]. What are you people doing here—what are you trying to do to me? MARY We’re here for your sake, Jack. JACK Did _you_ put this into my mother’s head? LEE I did, Jack. MARY So did I.... Oh, Jack—don’t you understand? I love you. I love you enough to be cruel to you for your sake. Oh, my dear, tell me that you are true to yourself, and I’ll go. I’ll go and I’ll come back to you. Tell me that you lied this afternoon when you said that the only real thing in your life was your career—tell me that you lied every time you got up on the stage in that Madison Street movie house— JACK [_Turns on her with an effort_]. Mama, get ready. We’ll be late. LEE [_Mercilessly_]. All we want is the truth, Jack. When I came in here—when I talked to you, didn’t you want to come back with me? _In your heart didn’t you want to come back?_ MARY Jack—this afternoon, when you were talking to me, you told me—you said— SARA Jakie—did you _want_ to come? JACK [_Sinks into chair. He is defeated_]. No. SARA [_Leans over him_]. And yet you came ... you came home ... and you was singing with the choir.... JACK Yes, I came home.... [_There is a silence_]. SARA [_Her voice sings a hymn of sacrifice_]. It’s enough. I didn’t know until today how different your life is from your papa’s, from mine. I didn’t understand that by you being a ragtime singer is like by your papa being a Cantor.... Jakie—do what is in your heart.... Always you can come back to me. I’m your mama.... But if you sing tonight and God ain’t in your heart, your Papa he’ll know.... All his life your papa loved God and the truth. Maybe if I tell your papa, he will understand.... JACK [_On the point of collapse. His voice is bitter, sardonic in defeat_]. Me a Cantor.... Funny—that’s what it is—funny.... I was just rehearsing with the choir, and they were like strangers to me—the same little boys that I used to play with—and they were strangers to me!... Sure! I’m from uptown—Broadway.... Seemed like every one of them was pointing his finger at me and saying, “Jakie Rabinowitz, jazz singer! Jakie Rabinowitz, jazz singer!”... LEE [_Very quietly, very tactfully_]. We have exactly a half-hour to get to the theatre.