VERA But you have come to end the tragic history; to throw off the coils of the centuries. DAVID [_Smiling again_] Yes, yes, Vera. You bring back my sunnier self. I must be a pioneer on the lost road of happiness. To-day shall be all joy, all lyric ecstasy. [_He takes up his violin._] Yes, I will make my old fiddle-strings _burst_ with joy! [_He dashes into a jubilant tarantella. After a few bars there is a knock at the door leading from the hall; their happy faces betray no sign of hearing it; then the door slightly opens, and BARON REVENDAL'S head looks hesitatingly in. As DAVID perceives it, his features work convulsively, his string breaks with a tragic snap, and he totters backward into VERA'S arms. Hoarsely_] The face! The face! VERA David--my dearest! DAVID [_His eyes closed, his violin clasped mechanically_] Don't be anxious--I shall be better soon--I oughtn't to have talked about it--the hallucination has never been so complete. VERA Don't speak--rest against Vera's heart--till it has passed away. [_The BARON comes dazedly forward, half with a shocked sense of VERA'S impropriety, half to relieve her of her burden. She motions him back._] This is the work of your Holy Russia. BARON [_Harshly_] What is the matter with him? [_DAVID'S violin and bow drop from his grasp and fall on the table._] DAVID The voice! [_He opens his eyes, stares frenziedly at the BARON, then struggles out of VERA'S arms._] VERA [_Trying to stop him_] Dearest---- DAVID Let me go. [_He moves like a sleep-walker toward the paralysed BARON, puts out his hand, and testingly touches the face._] BARON [_Shuddering back_] Hands off! DAVID [_With a great cry_] A-a-a-h! It is flesh and blood. No, it is stone--the man of stone! Monster! [_He raises his hand frenziedly._] BARON [_Whipping out his pistol_] Back, dog! [_VERA darts between them with a shriek._] DAVID [_Frozen again, surveying the pistol stonily_] Ha! You want _my_ life, too. Is the cry not yet loud enough? BARON The cry? DAVID [_Mystically_] Can you not hear it? The voice of the blood of my brothers crying out against you from the ground? Oh, how can you bear not to turn that pistol against yourself and execute upon yourself the justice which Russia denies you? BARON Tush! [_Pocketing the pistol a little shamefacedly._] VERA Justice on himself? For what? DAVID For crimes beyond human penalty, for obscenities beyond human utterance, for---- VERA You are raving. DAVID Would to heaven I were! VERA But this is my father. DAVID Your father!... God! [_He staggers._] BARON [_Drawing her to him_] Come, Vera, I told you---- VERA [_Frantically, shrinking back_] Don't touch me! BARON [_Starting back in amaze_] Vera! VERA [_Hoarsely_] Say it's not true. BARON What is not true? VERA What David said. It was the mob that massacred--_you_ had no hand in it.