DAVID [_After a pause_] Perhaps I _am_ ... _meshuggah_. [_He walks up and down moodily, approaches the parapet at back._] Dropping down is indeed natural. [_He looks over._] How it tugs and drags at one! [_He moves back resolutely and shakes his head._] That would be even a greater descent than Pappelmeister's to comic opera. One _must_ fly upward--somehow. [_He drops on the chair that MENDEL dried. A faint music steals up and makes an accompaniment to all the rest of the scene._] Ah! the popular classics! [_His head sinks on a little table. The elevator comes up again, but he does not raise his head. VERA, pale and sad, steps out and walks gently over to him; stands looking at him with maternal pity; then decides not to disturb him and is stealing away when suddenly he looks up and perceives her and springs to his feet with a dazed glad cry._] Vera! VERA [_Turns, speaks with grave dignity_] Miss Andrews has charged me to convey to you the heart-felt thanks and congratulations of the Settlement. DAVID [_Frozen_] Miss Andrews is very kind.... I trust you are well. VERA Thank you, Mr. Quixano. Very well and very busy. So you'll excuse me. [_She turns to go._] DAVID Certainly.... How are your folks? VERA [_Turns her head_] They are gone back to Russia. And yours? DAVID You just saw them all. VERA [_Confused_] Yes--yes--of course--I forgot! Good-bye, Mr. Quixano. DAVID Good-bye, Miss Revendal. [_He drops back on the chair. VERA walks to the elevator, then just before ringing turns again._] VERA I shouldn't advise you to sit here in the damp. DAVID My uncle dried the chair. [_Bitterly_] Curious how every one is concerned about my body and no one about my soul. VERA Because your soul is so much stronger than your body. Why, think! It has just lifted a thousand people far higher than this roof-garden. DAVID Please don't you congratulate me, too! That would be too ironical. VERA [_Agitated, coming nearer_] Irony, Mr. Quixano? Please, please, do not imagine there is any irony in my congratulations. DAVID The irony is in all the congratulations. How can I endure them when I know what a terrible failure I have made! VERA Failure! Because the critics are all divided? That is the surest proof of success. You have produced something real and new. DAVID I am not thinking of Pappelmeister's connoisseurs--_I_ am the only connoisseur, the only one who knows. And every bar of my music cried "Failure! Failure!" It shrieked from the violins, blared from the trombones, thundered from the drums. It was written on all the faces----