Broken Glass by Arthur Miller Page B

uniform.
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GELLBURG: My wife is very upset about that.
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HYMAN: I know, that’s why I mention it. Hesitates. And how about you?
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GELLBURG: Of course. It’s a terrible thing. Why do you ask?
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HYMAN, a smile: —I don’t know, I got the feeling she may be afraid she’s annoying you when she talks about such things.
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GELLBURG: Why? I don’t mind. -She said she’s annoying me?
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HYMAN: Not in so many words, but ...
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GELLBURG: I can’t believe she’d say a thing like ...
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HYMAN: Wait a minute, I didn’t say she said it ...
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GELLBURG: She doesn’t annoy me, but what can be done about such things? The thing is, she doesn’t like to hear about the other side of it.
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HYMAN: What other side?
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GELLBURG: It’s no excuse for what’s happening over there, but German Jews can be pretty ... you know ... Pushes up his nose with his forefinger. Not that they’re pushy like the ones from Poland or Russia but a friend of mine’s in the garment industry; these German Jews won’t take an ordinary good job, you know; it’s got to be pretty high up in the firm or they’re insulted. And they can’t even speak English.
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HYMAN: Well I guess a lot of them were pretty important over there.
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GELLBURG: I know, but they’re supposed to be refugees, aren’t they? With all our unemployment you’d think they’d appreciate a little more. Latest official figure is twelve million unemployed you know, and it’s probably bigger but Roosevelt can’t admit it, after the fortune he’s pouring into WPA and the rest of that welfare mishugas. —But she’s not annoying me, for God’s sake.
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HYMAN: ... I just thought I’d mention it; but it was only a feeling I had ...
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GELLBURG: I’ll tell you right now, I don’t run with the crowd, I see with these eyes, nobody else’s.
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HY M A N : I see that.—You’re very unusual - Grinning. - you almost sound like a Republican.
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G ELLBURG : Why?-the Torah says a Jew has to be a Democrat? I didn’t get where I am by agreeing with everybody.
    HYMAN: Well that’s a good thing; you’re independent. Nods, puffs. You know, what mystifies me is that the Germans I knew in Heidelberg... I took my M.D. there...
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GELLBURG: You got along with them.
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HYMAN: Some of the finest people I ever met.
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GE LLBU RG: Well there you go.
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HYMAN: We had a marvelous student choral group, fantastic voices; Saturday nights, we’d have a few beers and go singing through the streets.... People’d applaud from the windows.
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GELLBURG: Don’t say.
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HYMAN: I simply can’t imagine those people marching into Austria, and now they say Czechoslovakia’s next, and Poland.... But fanatics have taken Germany, I guess, and they can be brutal, you know ...
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GELLBURG : Listen, I sympathize with these refugees, but ...
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HYMAN , cutting him off : I had quite a long talk with Sylvia yesterday, I suppose she told you?
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GELLBURG, a tensing: Well ... no, she didn’t mention. What about?
    HYMAN , surprised by Sylvia’s omission: ... Well about her condition, and ... just in passing ... your relationship.
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GELLBURG, flushing: My relationship?
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HYMAN: ... It was just in passing.
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GELLBURG: Why, what’d she say?
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HYMAN: Well that you ... get along very well.
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GELLBURG: Oh.
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HYMAN, encouragingly, as he sees Gellburg’s small tension: I found her a remarkably well-informed woman. Especially for this neighborhood.
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GELLBURG, a pridefully approving nod; relieved that he can speak of her positively: That’s practically why we got together in the first place. I don’t exaggerate, if Sylvia was a man she could have run the Federal Reserve. You could talk to Sylvia like you talk to a man.
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HYMAN: I’ll