ish was to melt these simple
souls with your music. And now----

DAVID
Now I have only made my own stony.

MENDEL
You are right. You are stone all over--ever since you came back home to
us. Turned into a pillar of salt, mother says--like Lot's wife.

DAVID
That was the punishment for looking backward. Ah, uncle, there's more
sense in that old Bible than the Rabbis suspect. Perhaps that is the
secret of our people's paralysis--we are always looking backward.
[_He drops hopelessly into an iron garden-chair behind him._]

MENDEL [_Stopping him before he touches the seat_]
Take care--it's sopping wet. You don't look backward enough.
[_He takes out his handkerchief and begins drying the chair._]

DAVID [_Faintly smiling_]
I thought you wanted the salt to melt.

MENDEL
It _is_ melting a little if you can smile. Do you know, David, I haven't
seen you smile since that _Purim_ afternoon?

DAVID
You haven't worn a false nose since, uncle.
[_He laughs bitterly._]
Ha! Ha! Ha! Fancy masquerading in America because twenty-five centuries
ago the Jews escaped a _pogrom_ in Persia. Two thousand five hundred
years ago! Aren't we uncanny?
[_He drops into the wiped chair._]

MENDEL [_Angrily_]
Better you should leave us altogether than mock at us. I thought it was
your Jewish heart that drove you back home to us; but if you are still
hankering after Miss Revendal----

DAVID [_Pained_]
Uncle!

MENDEL
I'd rather see you marry her than go about like this. You couldn't make
the house any gloomier.

DAVID
Go back to the concert, please. They have quieted down.

MENDEL [_Hesitating_]
And you?

DAVID
Oh, I'm not playing in the popular after-pieces. Pappelmeister guessed
I'd be broken up with the stress of my own symphony--he has violins
enough.

MENDEL
Then you don't want to carry this about.
[_Taking the violin from DAVID'S arms._]

DAVID [_Clinging to it_]
Don't rob me of my music--it's all I have.

MENDEL
You'll spoil it in the wet. I'll take it home.

DAVID
No----
[_He suddenly catches sight of two figures entering from the
left--FRAU QUIXANO and KATHLEEN clad in their best, and wearing
tiny American flags in honour of Independence Day. KATHLEEN
escorts the old lady, with the air of a guardian angel, on her
slow, tottering course toward DAVID. FRAU QUIXANO is puffing and
panting after the many stairs. DAVID jumps up in surprise,
releases the vio