HOLDEN: I'm not trying to belittle it. But he had the whole spirit of
his age with him--fortunate boy. The man who stands outside the idealism
of this time--
FEJEVARY: Takes a good deal upon himself, I should say.
HOLDEN: There isn't any other such loneliness. You know in your heart
it's a noble courage.
FEJEVARY: It lacks--humility. (HOLDEN _laughs scoffingly_) And I think
you lack it. I'm asking you to co-operate with me for the good of Morton
College.
HOLDEN: Why not do it the other way? You say enlarge that we may grow.
That's false. It isn't of the nature of growth. Why not do it the way of
Silas Morton and Walt Whitman--each man being his purest and intensest
self. I was full of this fervour when you came in. I'm more and more
disappointed in our students. They're empty--flippant. No sensitive
moment opens them to beauty. No exaltation makes them--what they hadn't
known they were. I concluded some of the fault must be mine. The only
students I reach are the Hindus. Perhaps Madeline Morton--I don't quite
make her out. I too must have gone into a dead stratum. But I can get
back. Here alone this afternoon--(_softly_) I was back.
FEJEVARY: I think we'll have to let the Hindus go.
HOLDEN: (_astonished_) Go? Our best students?
FEJEVARY: This college is for Americans. I'm not going to have foreign
revolutionists come here and block the things I've spent my life working
for.
HOLDEN: I don't seem to know what you mean at all.
FEJEVARY: Why, that disgraceful performance this morning. I can settle
Madeline all right, (_looking at his watch_) She should be here by now.
But I'm convinced our case before the legislature will be stronger with
the Hindus out of here.
HOLDEN: Well, I seem to have missed something--disgraceful
performance--the Hindus, Madeline--(_stops, bewildered_)
FEJEVARY: You mean to say you don't know about the disturbance out here?
HOLDEN: I went right home after the address. Then came up here alone.
FEJEVARY: Upon my word, you do lead a serene life. While you've been
sitting here in contemplation I've been to the police court--trying to
get my niece out of jail. That's what comes of having radicals around.
HOLDEN: What happened?
FEJEVARY: One of our beloved Hindus made himself obnoxious on the
campus. Giving out handbills about freedom for India--howling over
deportation. Our American boys wouldn't stand for it. A policeman saw
the fuss--came up and started to put the Hindu in his place. Then
Madeline rushes in, and it ended in her pounding the policeman with her
tennis racket.
HOLDEN: Madeline Morton did that!
FEJEVARY: (_sharply_) You seem pleased.
HOLDEN: I am--interested.
FEJEVARY: Well, I'm not interested. I'm disgusted. My niece mixing up in
a free-for-all fight and getting taken to the police station! It's the
first disgrace we've ever had in our family.
HOLDEN: (_as one who has been given courage_) Wasn't there another
disgrace?
FEJEVARY: What do you mean?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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