[LADY CREECH lets her periodical rest in her lap, and without any abating or concealment, fixes PIKE with a basilisk glare which continues. He is unconscious of all this, his back being three-quarters to their group.]
VASILI [no pause]. You have studied mechanics at the University?
PIKE [smiling]. University? Law, no! On the old man"s farm.
[VASILI nods gravely.]
HAWCASTLE [blandly, to HORACE]. Without any disrespect to you, my dear fellow, what terrific bounders most of your fellow-countrymen are!
HORACE [greatly irritated]. Do you wonder sis and I have emanc.i.p.ated ourselves?
HAWCASTLE. Not at all, my dear lad.
VASILI [to PIKE]. Can I persuade you to accept a little of one of my own national dishes--caviar?
PIKE. Caviar? I"ve heard of it. I thought it was Rooshian.
VASILI [disturbed, but instantly recovering, himself]. It is German, also. Will you not?
[He motions MARIANO to serve PIKE. MARIANO places a spoonful of caviar on a silver dish at PIKE"S right.]
PIKE. I expect I"d never get to the legislature again if the boys heard about it. Still, I reckon I"m far enough from home to take a _few_ risks.
[He loads a fork with caviar, and with a smile places it in his mouth.
The smile slowly fades, his face becomes thoughtful, then grave; he slowly sets the fork upon his plate, his eyes turn toward VASILI with a look both puzzled and plaintive, his mouth firmly closed, his jaw moving slightly.]
VASILI. I fear you do not like it. A few swallows of vodka will take away the taste.
[Gives him a gla.s.s, which PIKE accepts, drinking a mouthful in haste, VASILI watching him, sincerely concerned and troubled. PIKE swallows the vodka, quietly sets the gla.s.s down on the table, his eyelids begin to flutter, he bends a look of suffering and distrust upon VASILI, slowly rises and closes his eyes, then slowly sits and opens them. Gradually a faint, distrustful smile appears on his face.]
PIKE [in the voice of a convalescent]. I never had any business to leave Indiana!
VASILI. I am sorry, my friend.
[PIKE takes another large forkful of caviar.]
VASILI [observing this]. But I thought you did not like the caviar?
PIKE. It"s to take away the taste of the vodka.
VASILI [laughing]. I lift my hat to you.
PIKE. You never worked on a farm in your own country, Doc?
VASILI. That has been denied me.
PIKE. I expect so. Talk about things to drink! Harvest-time, and the women folks coming out from the house with a two-gallon jug of ice-cold b.u.t.termilk!
[Sets down the gla.s.s and whistles softly with delight.]
[HORACE shows increasing signs of annoyance.]
VASILI. You still enjoy those delights?
PIKE. Not since I moved up to our county-seat ten years ago and began to practice law. Things don"t taste the same in the city.
VASILI. You do not like your city?
PIKE [not with braggadocio, but earnestly, almost pathetically]. Like it? Well, sir, for public buildings and architecture, I wouldn"t trade our State insane asylum for the worst-ruined ruin in Europe--not for hygiene and real comfort.
VASILI. And your people?
PIKE. The best on earth. Out _my_ way folks are neighbors.
[HORACE snaps his paper sharply.]
VASILI. But you have no leisure cla.s.s.
[VASILI is looking keenly at HAWCASTLE and HORACE as he speaks.]
PIKE. Got a pretty good-sized colored population.
VASILI. I mean no aristocracy--no great old families such as we have, that go back and back to the Middle Ages.
PIKE [genially]. Well, I expect if they go back that far they might just as well set down and stay there. No, sir, the poor in my country don"t have to pay taxes for a lot of useless kings and earls and first grooms of the bedchamber and second ladies in waiting, and I don"t know what all. If anybody wants _our_ money for nothin" he has to show energy enough to steal it. I wonder a man like you doesn"t emigrate.
VASILI. Bravo!
HAWCASTLE [to HORACE]. Your countryman seems to be rather down on us!
HORACE. This fellow is distinctly of the lower orders. We should cut him as completely in the States as here.
VASILI. I wonder you make this long journey, my friend, instead of to spend your holiday at home.
PIKE. Holiday! Why, _I_ never had time even to go to Niagara Falls!
VASILI [to MARIANO]. Finito!
[Sets his napkin carelessly on table and lights a Russian cigarette.]
MADAME DE CHAMPIGNY. What is it he does with his serviette?
PIKE [moving his chair back from the table slightly, and folding his napkin]. No, _sir_, you wouldn"t catch me puttin" in any time in these old kingdoms unless I had to.
LADY CREECH [loudly, to HAWCASTLE]. Hawcastle, can you tell me how much longer these persons intend to remain here listening to our conversation?
[PIKE half turns to LADY CREECH, innocently puzzled.]