FEJEVARY: You don't want to see the girl destroy herself, do you? I confess I've always worried about Madeline. If my sister had lived--But Madeline's mother died, you know, when she was a baby. Her father--well, you and I talked that over just the other day--there's no getting to him. Fred never worried me a bit--just the fine normal boy. But Madeline--(_with an effort throwing it off_) Oh, it'll be all right, I haven't a doubt. And it'll be all right between you and me, won't it? Caution over a hard strip of the road, then--bigger things ahead. HOLDEN: (_slowly, knowing what it may mean_) I shall continue to do all I can toward getting Fred Jordan out of prison. It's a disgrace to America that two years after the war closes he should be kept there--much of the time in solitary confinement--because he couldn't believe in war. It's small--vengeful--it's the Russia of the Czars. I shall do what is in my power to fight the deportation of Gurkul Singh. And certainly I shall leave no stone unturned if you persist in your amazing idea of dismissing the other Hindus from college. For what--I ask you? Dismissed--for _what_? Because they love liberty enough to give their lives to it! The day you dismiss them, burn our high-sounding manifesto, Mr Fejevary, and admit that Morton College now sells her soul to the--committee on appropriations! FEJEVARY: Well, you force me to be as specific as you are. If you do these things, I can no longer fight for you. HOLDEN: Very well then, I go. FEJEVARY: Go where? HOLDEN: I don't know--at the moment. FEJEVARY: I fear you'll find it harder than you know. Meanwhile, what of your family? HOLDEN: We will have to manage some way. FEJEVARY: It is not easy for a woman whose health--in fact, whose life--is a matter of the best of care to 'manage some way'. (_with real feeling_) What is an intellectual position alongside that reality? You'd like, of course, to be just what you want to be--but isn't there something selfish in that satisfaction? I'm talking as a friend now--you must know that. You and I have a good many ties, Holden. I don't believe you know how much Mrs Fejevary thinks of Mrs Holden. HOLDEN: She has been very, very good to her. FEJEVARY: And will be. She cares for her. And our children have been growing up together--I love to watch it. Isn't that the reality? Doing for them as best we can, making sacrifices of--of _every_ kind. Don't let some tenuous, remote thing destroy this flesh and blood thing. HOLDEN: (_as one fighting to keep his head above water_) Honesty is not a tenuous, remote thing. FEJEVARY: There's a kind of honesty in selfishness. We can't always have it. Oh, I used to--go through things. But I've struck a pace--one does--and goes ahead. HOLDEN: Forgive me, but I don't think you've had certain temptations to--selfishness.