The Melting-Pot

But you must come, David.

[The kitchen door opens, and MENDEL drags in the boyishly

shrinking DAVID. PAPPELMEISTER thumps with his umbrella, VERA

claps her hands, QUINCY DAVENPORT produces his eyeglass and

surveys DAVID curiously.]

VERA

Oh, Mr. Quixano, I am so glad! Mr. Davenport is going to produce your symphony in his wonderful music- room.

QUINCY

Yes, young man, I'm going to give you the smartest audience in America. And if Poppy is right, you're just going to rake in the dollars. America wants a composer.

PAPPELMEISTER [Raises hands emphatically.]

Ach Gott, ja!

VERA [To DAVID]

Why don't you speak? You're not angry with me for interfering--?

DAVID

I can never be grateful enough to you--

VERA

Oh, not to me. It is to Mr. Davenport you--

DAVID

And I can never be grateful enough to Herr Pappelmeister. It is an honour even to meet him.

[Bows.]

PAPPELMEISTER [Choking with emotion, goes and pats him on the back.]

Mein braver Junge!

VERA [Anxiously]

But it is Mr. Davenport--

DAVID

Before I accept Mr. Davenport's kindness, I must know to whom I am indebted-and if Mr. Davenport is the man who--

QUINCY

Who travelled with you to New York? Ha! Ha! Ha! No, I'm only the junior.

DAVID

Oh, I know, sir, you don't make the money you spend.

QUINCY

Eh?

VERA [Anxiously]

He means he knows you're not in business.

DAVID

Yes, sir; but is it true you are in pleasure?

QUINCY [Puzzled]

I beg your pardon?

DAVID

Are all the stories the papers print about you true?

QUINCY

All the stories. That's a tall order. Ha! Ha! Ha!

DAVID

Well, anyhow, is it true that--?

VERA

Mr. Quixano! What are you driving at?

QUINCY

Oh, it's rather fun to hear what the masses read about me. Fire ahead. Is what true?

DAVID

That you were married in a balloon?

QUINCY

Ho! Ha! Ha! That's true enough. Marriage in high life, they said, didn't they? Ha! Ha! Ha!

DAVID

And is it true you live in America only two months in the year, and then only to entertain Europeans who wander to these wild parts?

QUINCY

Lucky for you, young man. You'll have an Italian prince and a British duke to hear your scribblings.

DAVID

And the palace where they will hear my scribblings-is it true that--?

VERA [Who has been on pins and needles]

Mr. Quixano, what possible--?

DAVID [Entreatingly holds up a hand.]

Miss Revendal!

[To QUINCY DAVENPORT] Is this palace the same whose grounds were turned into Venetian canals where the guests ate in gondolas-gondolas that were draped with the most wonderful trailing silks in imitation of the Venetian nobility in the great water fêtes?

QUINCY [Turns to VERA]

Ah, Miss Revendal-what a pity you refused that invitation! It was a fairy scene of twinkling lights and delicious darkness-each couple had their own gondola to sup in, and their own side-canal to slip down. Eh? Ha! Ha! Ha!

DAVID

And the same night, women and children died of hunger in New York!

QUINCY [Startled, drops eyeglass.]

Eh?

DAVID [Furiously]

And this is the sort of people you would invite to hear my symphony-these gondola-guzzlers!

VERA

Mr. Quixano!

MENDEL

David!

DAVID

These magnificent animals who went into the gondolas two by two, to feed and flirt!

QUINCY [Dazed]

Sir!

DAVID

I should be a new freak for you for a new freak evening-I and my dreams and my music!

QUINCY

You low-down, ungrateful--

DAVID

Not for you and such as you have I sat here writing and dreaming; not for you who are killing my America!

QUINCY

Your America, forsooth, you Jew-immigrant!

VERA

Mr. Davenport!

DAVID

Yes-Jew-immigrant! But a Jew who knows that your Pilgrim Fathers came straight out of his Old Testament,