elf-made Americans! When I really needed your
helping hand you didn't think of me. You had the American idea that every
tub must stand on its own bottom, that every young fellow must make
_good_--that is, make money. You buy "art" at a certain stage in your
development just as you buy motor cars, and you think you can buy artists
the same way. You don't know that to buy dead art is to starve live
artists.

Well, I made good. I can stand alone. Are you offering me money now to
help me in my work? Not a bit! Rich men haven't changed since the first
tribal chief ordered his bow and arrows, his wives and servants, to be
buried with him.

UNCLE RICHARD

You conceited young rascal! I needn't leave you a cent!

RICHARD

I haven't asked you to. I never thought about your money. I can get along
very well without it. But can you take it with you?

UNCLE RICHARD

Of course not! But I can leave it to whom I please.

RICHARD

Why don't you leave it to Joseph?

UNCLE RICHARD

To Joseph--my coachman? Are you joking?

RICHARD

Not at all. Didn't he save your life in the Civil War? And what have I
ever done for you?

UNCLE RICHARD

I have remembered Joseph very handsomely, but to make him my _heir_--why,
that isn't the same thing at all!

RICHARD

Well, to a university then?

UNCLE RICHARD

No.

RICHARD

A church?

UNCLE RICHARD

No!

RICHARD

A cat hospital?

UNCLE RICHARD

Damn cats! There's been enough of them sick in my own house!

RICHARD

Well, I give it up.

UNCLE RICHARD

You young fool! You don't know what you are saying! _Joseph! Church! Cat
Hospital!_ What good would I get out of that? Is that what I have been
working for all my life? No indeed!

_Richard, you shall be my heir!_

RICHARD

I won't! You are only interested in me because I bear your name. If I were
John Smith, though ten times the better man, you would never waste a
thought upon me. My name is an accident--I care nothing for that. My real
self is my art, for which you care even less. All you want is to establish
a dynasty--the last infirmity of successful men.

No, I won't be your heir!

UNCLE RICHARD

Madness, madness! What kind of a world are we coming to?

RICHARD

Listen. One day when I was walking outside Siena I came to a fine old
villa with a wonderful garden. A row of cypresses ran along the wall
inside, and I wanted to paint it. The gardener let me in for a tip. While
I sat there working, he