VERA It is my only consolation, I tell you, that you do not need me. In our happiest moments a suspicion of this truth used to lacerate me. But now it is my one comfort in the doom that divides us. See how you stand up here above the world, alone and self-sufficient. No woman could ever have more than the second place in your life. DAVID But you have the _first_ place, Vera! VERA [_Shakes her head again_] No--I no longer even desire it. I have gotten over that womanly weakness. DAVID You torture me. What do you mean? VERA What can be simpler? I used to be jealous of your music, your prophetic visions. I wanted to come first--before them all! Now, dear David, I only pray that they may fill your life to the brim. DAVID But they cannot. VERA They will--have faith in yourself, in your mission--good-bye. DAVID [_Dazed_] You love me and you leave me? VERA What else can I do? Shall the shadow of Kishineff hang over all your years to come? Shall I kiss you and leave blood upon your lips, cling to you and be pushed away by all those cold, dead hands? DAVID [_Taking both her hands_] Yes, cling to me, despite them all, cling to me till all these ghosts are exorcised, cling to me till our love triumphs over death. Kiss me, kiss me now. VERA [_Resisting, drawing back_] I dare not! It will make you remember. DAVID It will make me forget. Kiss me. [_There is a pause of hesitation, filled up by the Cathedral music from "Faust" surging up softly from below._] VERA [_Slowly_] I will kiss you as we Russians kiss at Easter--the three kisses of peace. [_She kisses him three times on the mouth as in ritual solemnity._] DAVID [_Very calmly_] Easter was the date of the massacre--see! I am at peace. VERA God grant it endure! [_They stand quietly hand in hand._] Look! How beautiful the sunset is after the storm! [_DAVID turns. The sunset, which has begun to grow beautiful just after VERA'S entrance, has now reached its most magnificent moment; below there are narrow lines of saffron and pale gold, but above the whole sky is one glory of burning flame._] DAVID [_Prophetically exalted by the spectacle_] It is the fires of God round His Crucible. [_He drops her hand and points downward._] There she lies, the great Melting Pot--listen! Can't you hear the roaring and the bubbling? There gapes her mouth [_He points east_] --the harbour where a thousand mammoth feeders come from the ends of the world to pour in their human freight. Ah, what a stirring and a seething! Celt and Latin, Slav and Teuton, Greek and Syrian,--black and yellow---- VERA [_Softly, nestling to him_] Jew and Gentile----