Trast. Of course--we know that--But, inasmuch as you are willing to forego the generous handshake that the workman usually gets at this proud moment, I should think you would send the accounts to the office--and--(_With gesture of finality_) Robert. That would be simple enough. Trast. My dear man, let me talk to you as a friend! Robert. Go ahead, talk! Trast. You are pursuing a phantom! Robert. Really? Trast. No one has touched your honor. Robert. Really! Trast. Because nobody in the world could do it. Robert. Really, really! Trast. This thing that you call honor--this mixture of shame, and "tempo," and--honesty and pride, things you have acquired through a civilized existence and as a result of your own loyalty, why this can no more be taken away from you by a piece of treachery than your generosity or your judgment! Either it is a part of yourself or else it doesn't exist at all. The sort of honor that can be destroyed by a blow from a fop's glove has nothing to do with you! That is nothing but a mirror for the dandies, a plaything for the indolent and a perfume to the boulevardier. Robert. You talk like someone trying to make a virtue out of necessity. Trast. Perhaps--because every virtue is a direct result of necessity. Robert. And my family? Trast. I didn't think you had a family now! (Robert _buries his face in his hands_) I understand--it's a contraction of the nerves after the limb is amputated.--Don't deceive yourself! Even though the foot still pains you, the leg is gone! Robert. You never had a sister! Trast.--Tell me, must I, the aristocrat, learn what abasement means from you, a plebeian? My boy, don't forswear your parents. Don't say that they are worse than you or I.--They are different, that's all. Their sensations are sensations that are strange to you, the point of view they hold is simply beyond your comprehension. Therefore to criticize them is not only narrow-minded, but presumptuous--And you may as well know soon as late: in your struggle with your people you have been wrong from beginning to end! Robert. Trast, you say that!