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!