in the kitchen--didn't I go with
her to Hester Street to buy 'em?--but ye don't be axin' for 'em. And to
see your noses layin' around so solemn and neglected, faith, it nearly
makes me chry meself.

MENDEL [_Bitterly to himself_]
Who can remember about _Purim_ in America?

DAVID [_Half-smiling_]
Poor granny, tell her to come in and I'll play her _Purim_ jig.

MENDEL [_Hastily_]
No, no, David, not here--the visitors!

DAVID
Visitors? What visitors?

MENDEL [_Impatiently_]
That's just what I've been trying to explain.

DAVID
Well, I can play in the kitchen.
[_He takes his violin. Exit to kitchen. MENDEL sighs and shrugs
his shoulders hopelessly at the boy's perversity, then fingers
the cups and saucers._]

MENDEL [_Anxiously_]
Is that the _best_ tea-set?

KATHLEEN
Can't you see it's the Passover set!
[_Ruefully_]
And shpiled intirely it'll be now for our Passover.... And the misthress
thought the visitors might like to thry some of her _Purim_ cakes.
[_Indicates ear-shaped cakes on tray._]

MENDEL [_Bitterly_]
_Purim_ cakes!
[_He turns his back on her and stares moodily out of the
window._]

KATHLEEN [_Mutters contemptuously_]
Call yerself a Jew and you forgettin' to keep _Purim_!
[_She is going back to the kitchen when a merry Slavic dance
breaks out, softened by the door; her feet unconsciously get more
and more into dance step, and at last she jigs out. As she opens
and passes through the door, the music sounds louder._]

FRAU QUIXANO [_Heard from kitchen_]
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Kathleen!!
[_MENDEL'S feet, too, begin to take the swing of the music, and
his feet dance as he stares out of the window. Suddenly the hoot
of an automobile is heard, followed by the rattling up of the
car._]

MENDEL
Ah, she has brought somebody swell!
[_He throws open the doors and goes out eagerly to meet the
visitors. The dance music goes on softly throughout the scene._]

QUINCY DAVENPORT [_Outside_]
Oh, thank you--I leave the coats in the car.
[_Enter an instant later QUINCY DAVENPORT and VERA REVENDAL,
MENDEL in the rear. VERA is dressed much as before, but with a
motor veil, which she takes off during the scene. DAVENPORT is a
dude, aping the air of a European sporting clubman. Aged about
thirty-five and well set-up, he wears an orchid and an
intermittent eyeglass, and gives the impression of a