e,
will lead to nothing but making the mountain still higher. It is
the mountain itself that must be removed. It must be levelled to its
foundation, down to the bare earth. Do you understand?

LIPA

No, I don't understand you. You talk so strangely.

SAVVA

Annihilate everything! The old houses, the old cities, the old
literature, the old art. Do you know what art is?

LIPA

Yes, of course I know--pictures, statues. I went to the Tretyakov art
gallery.

SAVVA

That's it--the Tretyakov, and other galleries that are bigger still.
There are some good things in them, but it will be still better to
have the old stuff out of the way. All the old dress must go. Man must
be stripped bare and left naked on a naked earth! Then he will build
up a new life. The earth must be denuded, Lipa; it must be stripped
of its hideous old rags. It deserves to be arrayed in a king's mantle;
but what have they done with it? They have dressed it in coarse
fustian, in convict clothes. They've built cities, the idiots!

LIPA

But who will do it? Who's going to destroy everything?

SAVVA

I.

LIPA

You?

SAVVA

Yes, I. I'll begin, and then, when people get to understand what I am
after, others will join in. The work will proceed merrily, Lipa. The
sky will be hot. Yes. The only thing not worth destroying is science.
That would be useless. Science is unchangeable, and if, you destroyed
it to-day, it would rise up again the same as before.

LIPA

How much blood will have to be shed? Why, it's horrible!

SAVVA

No more than has been shed already--and there'll be rhyme and reason
to it, at least. _(Pause; the hens cluck in the yard; from the same
direction comes Tony's sleepy voice_: "Polya, father wants you. Where
did you put his cap?")

LIPA

What a scheme! Are you not joking, Savva?

SAVVA

You make me sick with your "you are joking, you are joking."

LIPA

I am afraid of you, Savva. You are so serious about it.

SAVVA

Yes, there are many people who are afraid of me.

LIPA

If you would only smile a little.

SAVVA _(looking at her with wide-open eyes and a frank face, and
breaking abruptly into a clear, ringing laugh)_ Oh, you funny girl,
what should I be smiling for? I'd rather laugh. _(Both laugh)_ Are you
afraid of tickling?

LIPA

Stop it! What a boy you are still!

SAVVA

All right. And Kondraty, isn't here yet. I wonder why. Do you think
the devil has taken him? The devil is fond of monk