DAVID _Gut Shabbos!_ [_Puts down the pen and smiles after her till the door closes, then with a deep sigh takes his cape from the peg and his violin-case, pauses, still humming, to take up his pen and write down a fresh phrase, finally puts on his hat and is just about to open the street-door when KATHLEEN enters from her bedroom fully dressed to go, and laden with a large brown paper parcel and an umbrella. He turns at the sound of her footsteps and remains at the door, holding his violin-case during the ensuing dialogue._] DAVID You're not going out this bitter weather? KATHLEEN [_Sharply fending him off with her umbrella_] And who's to shtay me? DAVID Oh, but you mustn't--_I'll_ do your errand--what is it? KATHLEEN [_Indignantly_] Errand, is it, indeed! I'm not here! DAVID Not here? KATHLEEN I'm lavin', they'll come for me thrunk--and ye'll witness I don't take the candleshtick. DAVID But who's sending you away? KATHLEEN It's sending meself away I am--yer houly grandmother has me disthroyed intirely. DAVID Why, what has the poor old la----? KATHLEEN I don't be saltin' the mate and I do be mixin' the crockery and----! DAVID [_Gently_] I know, I know--but, Kathleen, remember she was brought up to these things from childhood. And her father was a Rabbi. KATHLEEN What's that? A priest? DAVID A sort of priest. In Russia he was a great man. Her husband, too, was a mighty scholar, and to give him time to study the holy books she had to do chores all day for him and the children. KATHLEEN Oh, those priests! DAVID [_Smiling_] No, _he_ wasn't a priest. But he took sick and died and the children left her--went to America or heaven or other far-off places--and she was left all penniless and alone. KATHLEEN Poor ould lady. DAVID Not so old yet, for she was married at fifteen. KATHLEEN Poor young crathur! DAVID But she was still the good angel of the congregation--sat up with the sick and watched over the dead. KATHLEEN Saints alive! And not scared? DAVID No, nothing scared her--except me. I got a broken-down fiddle and used to play it even on _Shabbos_--I was very naughty. But she was so lovely to me. I still remember the heavenly taste of a piece of _Motso_ she gave me dipped in raisin wine! Passover cake, you know. KATHLEEN [_Proudly_] Oh, I know _Motso_. DAVID [_Smacks his lips, repeats_] Heavenly! KATHLEEN Sure, I must tashte it. DAVID [_Shaking his head, mysteriously_] Only little boys get that tashte. KATHLEEN That's quare. DAVID [_Smiling_] Very quare. And then one day my uncle sent the old lady a ticket to come to America. But it is not so happy for her here because you see my uncle has to be near his theatre and can't live in the Jewish quarter, and so nobody understands her, and she sits all the livelong day alone--alone with her book and her religion and her memories---- KATHLEEN [_Breaking down_] Oh, Mr. David!