What is there before him here but a terrible struggle for life? If he doesn't curse Columbus, he'll curse fate. Music-lessons and dance-halls, beer-halls and weddings—every hope and ambition will be ground out of him, and he will die obscure and unknown.
[His head sinks on his breast, Frau Quixano is heard faintly sobbing over her book. The sobbing continues throughout the scene.]
VERA [Half rising]
You have made your mother cry.
MENDEL
Oh, no—she understood nothing. She always cries on the eve of the Sabbath.
VERA [Mystified, sinking back into her chair]
Always cries? Why?
MENDEL [Embarrassed]
Oh, well, a Christian wouldn't understand——