HOLDEN:  No.

FEJEVARY:  You’re very serene up here.

HOLDEN:  Yes, I wanted to be—­serene for a little while.

FEJEVARY:  (looking at the books) Emerson.  Whitman. (with a smile)
Have they anything new to say on economics?

HOLDEN:  Perhaps not; but I wanted to forget economics for a time.  I came up here by myself to try and celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the founding of Morton College. (answering the other man’s look) Yes, I confess I’ve been disappointed in the anniversary.  As I left Memorial Hall after the exercises this morning, Emerson’s words came into my mind—­
  ’Give me truth,
  For I am tired of surfaces
  And die of inanition.’ 
Well, then I went home—­(stops, troubled)

FEJEVARY:  How is Mrs Holden?

HOLDEN:  Better, thank you, but—­not strong.

FEJEVARY:  She needs the very best of care for a time, doesn’t she?

HOLDEN:  Yes. (silent a moment) Then, this is something more than the fortieth anniversary, you know.  It’s the first of the month.

FEJEVARY:  And illness hasn’t reduced the bills?

HOLDEN:  (shaking his head) I didn’t want this day to go like that; so
I came up here to try and touch what used to be here.

FEJEVARY:  But you speak despondently of us.  And there’s been such a fine note of optimism in the exercises. (speaks with the heartiness of one who would keep himself assured)

HOLDEN:  I didn’t seem to want a fine note of optimism. (with roughness) I wanted—­a gleam from reality.

FEJEVARY:  To me this is reality—­the robust spirit created by all these young people.

HOLDEN:  Do you think it is robust? (hand affectionately on the book before him) I’ve been reading Whitman.

FEJEVARY:  This day has to be itself.  Certain things go—­others come; life is change.

HOLDEN:  Perhaps it’s myself I’m discouraged with.  Do you remember the tenth anniversary of the founding of Morton College.

FEJEVARY:  The tenth?  Oh yes, that was when this library was opened.

HOLDEN:  I shall never forget your father, Mr Fejevary, as he stood out there and said the few words which gave these books to the students.  Not many books, but he seemed to baptize them in the very spirit from which books are born.

FEJEVARY:  He died the following year.

HOLDEN:  One felt death near.  But that didn’t seem the important thing.  A student who had fought for liberty for mind.  Of course his face would be sensitive.  You must be very proud of your heritage.

FEJEVARY:  Yes. (a little testily) Well, I have certainly worked for the college.  I’m doing my best now to keep it a part of these times.

HOLDEN:  (as if this has not reached him) It was later that same afternoon I talked with Silas Morton.  We stood at this window and looked out over the valley to the lower hill that was his home.  He told me how from that hill he had for years looked up to this one, and why there had to be a college here.  I never felt America as that old farmer made me feel it.