What else could I do?

VERA

I hate the smart set as much as you—but as your ladder and your trumpet——

DAVID

I would not stand indebted to them. I know you meant it for my good, but what would these Europe-apers have understood of my America—the America of my music? They look back on Europe as a pleasure ground, a palace of art—but I know

[Getting hysterical]

it is sodden with blood, red with bestial massacres——

VERA [Alarmed, anxious]

Let us talk no more about it.

[She holds out her hand.]