Part 2

It has fallen into the canal! It's ruined! [_Looks at ROSA._] I don't understand. I don't understand!

ESTHER.

Oh, well; Rafael has some others. I'll see Rafael. Good-night.

REBECCA.

[_To ROSA._] If the portrait dropped in where I left it, then it must have floated against the current.

ROSA.

[_Fiercely, sotto._] It did go against the current.

[_Exit REBECCA._

SACHEL.

Not a cent under twelve thousand.

[_ROSA, at the bridge, struggles with tears._

ESTHER.

We shall see! [_Exit._

SACHEL.

So we shall. Why doesn't he come? His miserable selfishness. My God, if anything has happened to him! He doesn't come. He might have been set upon and robbed--beaten, killed, by some cursed ruffian beyond the Ghetto. My God--I'm harsh--too harsh with him. I shall be chastened for it. I was harsh to his mother; yes, I know--I know; I broke her heart perhaps, and Rafael, poor boy----[_Stops, listens._] His step! Yes; even--steady--he's in no distress. He's not worrying about _me_. He'll come home to sleep and get more money--that's all. He's a vagabond--a rascally vagabond!

_Enter ESTHER._

_Enter RAFAEL by the bridge._

RAFAEL.

[_Wearily._] Good evening. [_No answer._] Good evening! [_No answer._]

[_He exchanges guarded looks with ROSA. Exit ROSA._

ESTHER.

[_Contemptuously._] The gentleman says "Good evening!" This is his lodging-house, where he does us the honour to sleep!

RAFAEL.

I know I am rather late. I hope you were not anxious about me, father. Were you? Father! Oh--well!

ESTHER.

Why should he answer you? What manner of son are you?

SACHEL.

Where have you been all day?

RAFAEL.

I--what does it matter? I know--I promised to do some business for you--but--there were other things--I forgot--I am sorry.

ESTHER.

Oh, he's sorry.

SACHEL.

I asked you where you idled all this day, and you evaded me.

RAFAEL.

I have been everywhere--and the day vanished while I was thinking. Have you something to eat, aunt?

SACHEL.

We have finished eating.

ESTHER.

At this time of night! H'm!

RAFAEL.

Very well. I will see what I can find.

SACHEL.

Oh, my Maker, how heavily thou visitest upon me! To be thus mocked by a stranger within mine own house! If your poor dead mother knew how you treated me!

RAFAEL.

Father, the rotten board that marked my mother's grave is falling to pieces. And you can hardly find the spot for weeds--weeds!

SACHEL.

Is that where you've been? Where else?

RAFAEL.

Far away--in my thoughts.

SACHEL.

Another day--a whole precious day devoured by your drivelling nonsense! Are you a son? Have you an old blind father? Oh, my business, my splendid business, that I slaved and sweated out my marrow for, dwindling, dwindling with every ticking of the clock! And he wants me to buy a new headboard! I had better buy one for myself. I had better be dead than not, with such a son.

ESTHER.

Sachel! Sachel! You cry--for a son like that! He is not worth one tear.

SACHEL.

God punishes me for all my sins. When he was a child I have stolen the bread from my mouth for him, weeks at a time; and now I may burrow alone in the dark for all he cares, chained to my door-post, chained to wait till some one comes to deal with me--to rob and swindle and mock me--because I am alone--and blind.

RAFAEL.

And the saddest is, it is not my doing, and I cannot help it.

SACHEL.

Not his doing! Oh, my Maker! Can I keep him in irons and make him use his eyes for me?

RAFAEL.

Father, between us matters cannot be improved--now nor ever!

ESTHER.

Well, upon my word!

SACHEL.

Why not? You have something you dare not tell. There is a woman in it. You had forty guilders when you went away this morning. Have you a cent of it left?

RAFAEL.

I gave it all to Mordecai to bury his son.

SACHEL.

I do not believe it.

RAFAEL.

Father! For the little time that I remain here need we add more bitterness to what exists?

SACHEL.

What do you say?

RAFAEL.

I am going away.

SACHEL.

What--what--what do you say?

RAFAEL.

I am going away!

SACHEL.

Oh, oh, that crowns all! He can look into my dead eyes and threaten this--without a quiver--without a qualm!

RAFAEL.

Ah, there was a time--there was a time, when I would have yielded any sacrifice for you--when I was a boy and you had just gone blind, and my heart was wrung with a pity for you that was a very pity in itself. If I had seen tears in your poor sightless eyes, then my peace would have been utterly destroyed; at the thought of having vexed you I should have beaten my brow. And now it's gone--gone--and it won't come back--it can't come back--because you robbed me of it.

SACHEL.

I? I? What have _I_ done? And why do you go away?

RAFAEL.

For reasons all of which I will not tell.

SACHEL.

You dog! To leave your father--sick and blind, and on the road to poverty! God shall curse you for it!

RAFAEL.

No; God shall not! To live under this roof--to see, day in, day out--nothing--nothing--but, no--no! There _are_ reasons, reasons enough, Heaven be my judge!

[_Several musical instruments begin to tune up in the house where DANIEL and SAMSON live._

ESTHER.

Heaven will be your judge! There _are_ reasons--reasons you are ashamed of--reasons you dare not tell!

SACHEL.

It is true! You have fouled my name, you have been in the mire, you have committed some contemptible thing you are ashamed of! You are running away, you dare not tell why!

[_RAFAEL throws over a chair; regains his composure._

RAFAEL.

Is it but three years ago that I was so ignorant, so raw, and so fond of you? I had known you with the fire of life in your eyes, and now it had gone; the light of your soul was as hidden in a dungeon, because you were blind. Ah, how I suffered! I shut my eyes to imagine it--darkness, black nothing; God's beautiful sky gone for ever, as if you were in your coffin under ground! Awful! Awful! And this, this was my father--my father, whom I loved and honoured, of all the world!

SACHEL.

Who asked your sympathy? Hold your tongue!

RAFAEL.

I honoured you because you asked the sympathy of no man. I _honoured_ you. Shall I ever forget that Friday, when I stood alone in the gloom of this warehouse, watching you, sorrowing over your blindness, with tears in my eyes! You stood by the scales. They were weighing out your merchandise; the man who had bought it stooped and shifted the weights; and your creature Jacob read the figures out and you wrote them down in great coarse scrawls--your grey head bare, your face turned up to heaven. How I loved you--how I pitied you! You bore yourself with such calm--such fortitude--as if, when God had touched your eyes, He had whispered into your ears some portion of the everlasting truth. No one saw me--I was back in the shadow. And I started forward; I wanted to say, "Father--go in; father, never labour again! Sit in your chair--rest always--while I do your bidding--while I do everything!" But I did not say it. No! I stopped; I slunk back into the deepest shadow like a criminal. I had uttered a cry, but you and Jacob did not hear me. On the platform of the scales, when your client stooped to balance them, I had seen a foot go out--go out while your white face was turned in holy calm to heaven--go out and press down--so that the scales read false--so that the man who bought our goods was tricked and robbed--robbed of the money we had not earned from him. And again I saw it, and again, and again, father! And the man whose foot went out and did this crime, the man who was stealing and stealing, time after time, stealing his money, stealing my respect, my honour, my youth, before my eyes--was it Jacob? No, it was you--you, my father--my father, whom I loved and pitied, and they had trusted--because you were blind!

ESTHER.

Shame! That's a lie! Shame!

RAFAEL.

[_Turning to his father._] Is it a lie?

SACHEL.

[_Hoarsely._] Let him go on. Let him go on.

RAFAEL.

And that afternoon I went with my father to the synagogue; I did not pray, I could not speak. I only gazed at my father's face, waiting to see it soften into some shade of doubt, of repentance, of remorse. And the dead eyes faced up to the rafters where the sun shone through--they faced up there with the same impassive stare--the same holy calm, as when he stood with his foot on the scales. Ah, when we walked home, how cold and pitiless the sky looked down at me that winter day! We sat at our Sabbath table. He complained that I was silent. He said prayers, he dipped the bread in the salt. The lamplight shone on him, and I stared into his face, and I saw nothing--nothing I had always thought I saw--and my heart was ice; and he rose and stumbled over a stool and fell, and I picked him up--and my heart was still ice. He was no longer blind to me--he was nothing--nothing but a--ah no, no,--what's the use--what's the use?

SACHEL.

[_Hoarsely._] Have I been different from the others? Aaron, Levy, Isaac, would they not have done the same? Is there any one who would not take advantage of my eyes? No; business is business.

RAFAEL.

Business,--Aaron, Levy, Isaac! God, how I have despised them all my life!

ESTHER.

Oh, he would give overweight!

RAFAEL.

I will quarrel no more with you. When I am gone----

SACHEL.

You are not going--you shall not go! [_Trembling._] I have nothing in the world but you. Didn't I do it all for you? When I am dead the money will be yours, and the blame sewed up in my shroud with me. Can't you be content?

RAFAEL.

[_After looking at him for a moment, hopelessly._] It is getting late. I am tired. Let us go to bed, and to-morrow let us part friends.

ESTHER.

You eat something. Then you'll feel differently. H'm! He go away! I shall call up Rosa!

RAFAEL.

Thanks, no. I could not eat now. Has she not done enough this sweltering day?

ESTHER.

Then I'm going to bed. No wonder, to be so irregular in your ways. You were up last night. Couldn't you sleep?

RAFAEL.

I did not sleep until nearly morning.

[_Exit ESTHER. SACHEL goes to try the shutters._

Well, good-night, father. You won't answer? Well, good-night! [_Music begins in the house at the back._] [_Aside._] They are playing my music. Give me time--I will show you what is in my soul!

SACHEL.

[_Aside._] The scales--that is not the only reason!

_Enter ROSA, who does not see SACHEL. She starts to go to RAFAEL. SACHEL hears her._

Rosa, why are you not in bed? [_ROSA stops motionless, mute, frightened._] Is that Rosa? [_He is suspicious._

[_They do not answer. Exit SACHEL into the house, evidently with a purpose._

ROSA.

[_Rushing to RAFAEL._] Rafael! Rafael! Tell me the truth. Am I not your wife? Don't you love me? Do you love some one else? Do you love Aaron's daughter? They are planning to marry her to you. What does it mean? [_He motions her to be silent._] Does it mean that you wish it? No--no, it can't be that: you have said you were going away; but you didn't tell them of me. Why? Why do you not tell them of me?--soon enough you'll have to; and then--then you will have to choose--choose between the rage of your father--between disinheritance--poverty--the wrath of all the Ghetto, and me--only me! Rafael, my life is in your hands. Love me--love me, Rafael! Don't let me doubt you! [_He stops her mouth. Suddenly SACHEL opens the window over the shop-door; he leans out, listens, hears nothing, withdraws._] He's in my room--he's searching for me--he suspects us--he has said so. He's coming down now; he's going to accuse us; he's going to tell you to desert me--desert me or starve! Rafael, what are you going to say? Rafael, what are you going to say?

[_He stops her mouth again; they look in through the door. A pause._

_Enter SACHEL._

SACHEL.

She's not in the house! Rosa--where are you?

ROSA.

[_Whispering to RAFAEL._] Where? Where?

RAFAEL.

[_Quietly taking her in his arms._] Rosa is here, father.

A WATCHMAN.

[_Heard in the distance._] Ten o'clock, and all's well! Ten o'clock, and all's well!

[_SACHEL shakes his head._

END OF THE FIRST ACT.

THE SECOND ACT

SCENE: _A living room in the rear of SACHEL'S shop. A door at the back opens into the street; at the left a staircase runs up over a fireplace to a gallery which gives access to two rooms off the stage._

_ROSA is discovered at the fireplace. ESTHER is at the dining-table, which is set with the Sabbath-cloth. ESTHER crosses to a door at the left._

ESTHER.

Sachel, your medicine!

[_ROSA brings a jug of hot water to the table; ESTHER prepares some medicine with the water._

_Enter SACHEL._

SACHEL.

That girl--where is she?

ESTHER.

She's here.

SACHEL.

[_Aside._] That's what Rafael said last night. Rosa! Go and water the flowers in my window and pick off the dead leaves, and be sure you give plenty of time to it. [_Exit ROSA._

ESTHER.

Well! Since when have you taken such an interest in flowers?

[_She goes upstairs._

SACHEL.

I want to talk; I've been awake all night. This girl keeps lying to me. Last night she had the effrontery to tell me--[_with calculation_]--she told me she was considered beautiful!

ESTHER.

[_Not interested._] Well, she is beautiful!

[_Exit ESTHER._

SACHEL.

H'm! [_He thinks deeply; rises._] Rosa!

_Enter ROSA._

Last night you tried to make me think you were ugly;--you deceived me. You are not a woman--you are a fiend come into my house--come in out of the Christian world--to do what? What do you expect to do here? Do you know you are in the heart of the Ghetto? What do you expect to do in my house?

ROSA.

Nothing but what my God gives me the right to do!

SACHEL.

Your God? I tell you the wall your God built against us still shuts Him away from here! You came into my house to divide it against itself. You have been getting too near my son. Do you think I don't know? You've been trying to turn him against his religion, you've been trying to turn him against me!

ROSA.

If I have, then I have failed. Rafael loves you.

SACHEL.

You say so? I ask no better proof that he hates me! You came into my house to accomplish this, you vampire! Could you not have fastened on someone else than Rafael? Who sent you here to find him? Did your Christian God send you here?

ROSA.

[_Thinking of RAFAEL._] Yes, yes, my God did send me here--[_checks herself_]--or else I should have starved.

SACHEL.

Starve! Does a demon ever starve? Not while young men have hot blood! Hah! It is well that I have found you out before this thing has gone too far. Don't I know your damned tricks; _you_ wouldn't be satisfied with a passing touch of his lips. You've got a brain--a lying, scheming, devilish brain! You want his heart--you want his soul! By God! [_He goes vigorously and opens the door, to the street._] Do you know what I'm going to do? There's where we found you--out there in the streets, without a friend, without a cent, and your dead father----

ROSA.

Sachel, my father helped your people!

SACHEL.

Now let the Jews help his daughter! You've lied to me always! Shall I believe this story of your father? I believe he was a demon like you! I believe he was sent out of hell to steal away men's souls, as you were. You've found something to fight when you've come across me! Shall I feel a snake in my bosom and not cast it out? [_He points to the door._] You--[_He checks himself; a pause._] Shut the door! Go on with your work! [_Exit ROSA._] No, no, no--it won't do to _tear_ him away from her. She is beautiful;--we must marry him to Rebecca. Rebecca is handsome, Rebecca is rich, Rebecca is minx enough. We must marry him to Rebecca if we can. If not, to some one else--any one else, as soon as we can. But we must handle him with care. Ah! I had better get the Rabbi to talk to him; the Rabbi has tact. And, for the present, we must let Rosa be.

_Enter ESTHER. A knock on the door._

Aaron. Come in!

_Enter AARON._

AARON.

Good morning!

SACHEL.

Good morning!

ESTHER.

Good morning!

AARON.

I shouldn't have come, my friend, if I hadn't promised Esther. For I've been thinking it over; and if there is any question of your son marrying my daughter, I tell you I will give eight thousand guilders and no more!

SACHEL.

All because I said "Good morning" to you. I have been considering it. I am willing to talk with you. As you probably said in your sleep last night, if you can get rid of your daughter without paying more than ten thousand guilders, you'll be pretty well satisfied.

AARON.

Eh--what?

SACHEL.

Come on, it's time to start to the synagogue; we'll have a talk on the way.

AARON.

But, my dear sir, eight thousand----

SACHEL.

No; as you said in your sleep--ten thousand!

[_Exeunt all._

_Enter SAMSON, cautiously._

SAMSON.

Rosa! Rosa! [_Aside._] A little show of modesty! Rosa! Nevertheless she is listening at the other side of that door; she thinks I will betray myself in some soliloquy. H'm! [_Loudly._] Ah--she's not here; how the blood rushed to my heart, like the sea beating against a rock, when I thought I should have two golden moments alone with her! [_He stands on lowest cupboard shelf to be near her door, which is upstairs._] But she's gone!--gone forth to air her beauty. Such beauty! Such a face, such a form! Night after night she floats in my dreams--[_he steps up one shelf nearer_]--for I love her so that I have not slept a wink for weeks.

_Enter DANIEL, unobserved by SAMSON._

And if she were here I would tell her so! I could gratify her tastes! For once her love is mine. [_He draws a bunch of keys from his pocket._] She shall hear such music as this from morn till night----

[_He jingles the keys._

_Enter ROSA._

One--two--three--four--five--five gold pieces! Did I come abroad with only five? H'm! There are plenty more like these indoors--yes, in doors! And here I stand perishing with my ardour. Nay, I feel faint----

[_DANIEL bursts into loud laughter._

ROSA.

[_To SAMSON._] You miserable cur! [_SAMSON descends sheepishly._] If I were of your faith--if I were not a servitor, without a father, without a brother, you would not dare! [_DANIEL laughs._] And you--if you were a little better than he, you would have struck him! What do you want here? Go!

DANIEL.

Look here, my girl, you need not be so virtuous when you talk to us! We live next to you--our windows overlook yours--eh, Samson?

SAMSON.

Don't you be unpleasant to this lady!

ROSA.

[_To DANIEL._] What do you mean?

DANIEL.

Lady! What do we mean? What's the difference? Rafael is a friend of ours. We are most liberal--most charitable, eh, Samson?

ROSA.

Rafael? Why do you speak of Rafael? What do you mean?

SAMSON.

Now you needn't bring Rafael into it, Daniel. I don't want any--any misapprehension with Rafael.

ROSA.

You shall have an understanding with him, you cowards--you vulgar beasts! I shall tell him!

DANIEL.

He'll tell you to hold your tongue. Are you his wife? No; you're a Christian servant in his father's house; we know all about that, and you'd better learn to take a joke.

SAMSON.

It was only a joke, you know--only a joke--(_with a forced laugh._) [_ROSA'S anger increases._] Now don't you tell Rafael that I was trying to get in his way!

ROSA.

What do you mean? Get in his way? He would flick you over his shoulder into the canal. I shall tell him!

SAMSON.

Don't--don't bring Rafael into it! Hasn't he enough on his mind already?

ROSA.

Would anything so slight as you increase his burden? You cowards! You both fear him! You _may_ fear him!

_Enter RAFAEL._

RAFAEL.

Hallo! News! news! I've seen Hanakoff--and Hanakoff says--Hanakoff--what's the matter? What is the matter? Which of you was it? Rosa, what did they do?

ROSA.

[_Pointing to SAMSON._] Let him speak.

SAMSON.

Why--why, she can't take a joke--that's all.

RAFAEL.

Oh, a joke. What was the joke? What was the joke?

DANIEL.

Oh, everything is a joke. Don't we live across the street? Can two people help putting their heads together once in a while? Well, of course, if you--if she--if we--why, of course----

RAFAEL.

What did they say?

ROSA.

They said--they insinuated that--that----

RAFAEL.

I know what they said. You--I--[_He takes hold of them both._] Two people can't help putting their heads together! If you will meet me in some seclusion, my two good friends, I'll show you how two heads can be so put together that two people shall see stars enough to read their horoscopes. You shall read in those stars the name of Rosa--Rosa who, God search my soul, is purer than the snows on the crest of the Jungfrau. Quite properly--[_as he causes them to bend low_]--quite properly, they bend in homage, Rosa! And Daniel here, Daniel whom the starving lions would not taste--the story never seemed to me so true as now--he says that what he said he did not say, and can't remember what it was, and is most sorry that he said it--and see--[_forces them_]--bends low. I thank you for your courtesy. And Samson, he that slew the thousands with the jawbone of an ass--which is his jawbone to this day--he's swallowing those words he spoke, so eagerly that he chokes! Ha, ha! my ardent friends! [_He turns them about ironically._] And must you go? Ah, well! [_He pushes them towards the door._] If you insist--if you insist--Good-bye! Good-bye! [_He throws them violently out._] [_Then to ROSA._] I have seen Hanakoff; he is going to play my music to-night; and if--Rosa--[_ROSA bursts into tears._] Rosa!

ROSA.

Go away from me!

RAFAEL.

But why, Rosa----

ROSA.

Let me be! You shall never touch me again! I hate you--I loathe you--all of you!

RAFAEL.

But have I not disposed of them! Is there anything else? My darling!

ROSA.

No, never again; never shall you lay your hand on me! I know what lies before me now. I am your wife and you will not proclaim me. I am your wife and they insult me, and you bundle them off without a word such as I wanted, as if I were your mistress, who must not be vexed! I know now; last night you soothed me over--you took me in your arms before him; but he is blind--he did not understand--he only suspected something foul; and so it will grow, until his suspicion makes an open accusation; and then you will stand revealed--you will shrink away from me--you will cry, "I have sinned in the sight of the synagogue," and I shall be cast out of doors--a broken plaything, a husk of yesterday!

RAFAEL.

Rosa! Rosa! Are you not my wife?

ROSA.

Your wife--here in the Ghetto--here among your people? No, to them I am a Christian--to them I cannot be your wife--to them I am a sacrilege--an insult in their teeth! Oh! as one who enters hell I entered here--a steaming hell of avarice; not life--but a sickly poisoned dream of gain, gain--always gain. I thought I saw a bright light shining in this horrid place. I flew to you--I gave you my soul--to find myself--ugh!--only----

RAFAEL.

Horror! that you should even think such things!

ROSA.

Think such things! You say you love me with all your heart--with all your soul. How great is your soul that dares not the anger of a father who is wrong?--a soul that fears poverty, disinheritance, the hatred of the Ghetto? You fear that you would be cast off, that you would suffer want and ridicule, that your father would never feed you and clothe you again; and when that fear comes into your heart what room is left for me? Love! Ugh! Ugh! What is _your_ love! The love of the way that is easiest, the love of the son of honest Sachel--the love of a Jew!

RAFAEL.