VERA [_Vehemently, coming still nearer_] Oh, no! no! I watched the faces--those faces of toil and sorrow, those faces from many lands. They were fired by your vision of their coming brotherhood, lulled by your dream of their land of rest. And I could see that you were right in speaking to the people. In some strange, beautiful, way the inner meaning of your music stole into all those simple souls---- DAVID [_Springing up_] And _my_ soul? What of _my_ soul? False to its own music, its own mission, its own dream. That is what I mean by failure, Vera. I preached of God's Crucible, this great new continent that could melt up all race-differences and vendettas, that could purge and re-create, and God tried me with his supremest test. He gave me a heritage from the Old World, hate and vengeance and blood, and said, "Cast it all into my Crucible." And I said, "Even thy Crucible cannot melt this hate, cannot drink up this blood." And so I sat crooning over the dead past, gloating over the old blood-stains--I, the apostle of America, the prophet of the God of our children. Oh--how my music mocked me! And you--so fearless, so high above fate--how you must despise me! VERA I? Ah no! DAVID You must. You do. Your words still sting. Were it seven seas between us, you said, our love must cross them. And I--I who had prated of seven seas---- VERA Not seas of blood--I spoke selfishly, thoughtlessly. I had not realised that crimson flood. Now I see it day and night. O God! [_She shudders and covers her eyes._] DAVID There lies my failure--to have brought it to your eyes, instead of blotting it from my own. VERA No man could have blotted it out. DAVID Yes--by faith in the Crucible. From the blood of battlefields spring daisies and buttercups. In the divine chemistry the very garbage turns to roses. But in the supreme moment my faith was found wanting. You came to me--and I thrust you away. VERA I ought not to have come to you.... I ought not to have come to you to-day. We must not meet again. DAVID Ah, you cannot forgive me! VERA Forgive? It is I that should go down on my knees for my father's sin. [_She is half-sinking to her knees. He stops her by a gesture and a cry._] DAVID No! The sins of the fathers shall not be visited on the children. VERA My brain follows you, but not my heart. It is heavy with the sense of unpaid debts--debts that can only cry for forgiveness. DAVID You owe me nothing---- VERA But my father, my people, my country.... [_She breaks down. Recovers herself._] My only consolation is, you need nothing. DAVID [_Dazed_] I--need--nothing? VERA Nothing but your music ... your dreams. DAVID And your love? Do I not need that? VERA [_Shaking her head sadly_] No. DAVID You say that because I have forfeited it.