FEJEVARY:  (drawn by this, then shifting in irritation because he is drawn) I’m sorry to break in with practical things, but alas, I am a practical man—­forced to be.  I too have made a fight—­though the fight to finance never appears an idealistic one.  But I’m deep in that now, and I must have a little help; at least, I must not have—­stumbling-blocks.

HOLDEN:  Am I a stumbling-block?

FEJEVARY:  Candidly (with a smile) you are a little hard to finance.  Here’s the situation.  The time for being a little college has passed.  We must take our place as one of the important colleges—­I make bold to say one of the important universities—­of the Middle West.  But we have to enlarge before we can grow. (answering HOLDEN’s smile) Yes, it is ironic, but that’s the way of it.  It was a nice thing to open the anniversary with fifty thousand from the steel works—­but fifty thousand dollars—­nowadays—­to an institution? (waves the fifty thousand aside) They’ll do more later, I think, when they see us coming into our own.  Meanwhile, as you know, there’s this chance for an appropriation from the state.  I find that the legislature, the members who count, are very friendly to Morton College.  They like the spirit we have here.  Well, now I come to you, and you are one of the big reasons for my wanting to put this over.  Your salary makes me blush.  It’s all wrong that a man like you should have these petty worries, particularly with Mrs Holden so in need of the things a little money can do.  Now this man Lewis is a reactionary.  So, naturally, he doesn’t approve of you.

HOLDEN:  So naturally I am to go.

FEJEVARY:  Go?  Not at all.  What have I just been saying?

HOLDEN:  Be silent, then.

FEJEVARY:  Not that either—­not—­not really.  But—­be a little more discreet. (seeing him harden) This is what I want to put up to you.  Why not give things a chance to mature in your own mind?  Candidly, I don’t feel you know just what you do think; is it so awfully important to express—­confusion?

HOLDEN:  The only man who knows just what he thinks at the present moment is the man who hasn’t done any new thinking in the past ten years.

FEJEVARY:  (with a soothing gesture) You and I needn’t quarrel about it.  I understand you, but I find it a little hard to interpret you to a man like Lewis.

HOLDEN:  Then why not let a man like Lewis go to thunder?

FEJEVARY:  And let the college go to thunder?  I’m not willing to do that.  I’ve made a good many sacrifices for this college.  Given more money than I could afford to give; given time and thought that I could have used for personal gain.

HOLDEN:  That’s true, I know.

FEJEVARY:  I don’t know just why I’ve done it.  Sentiment, I suppose.  I had a very strong feeling about my father, Professor Holden.  And this friend Silas Morton.  This college is the child of that friendship.  Those are noble words in our manifesto:  ’Morton College was born because there came to this valley a man who held his vision for mankind above his own advantage; and because that man found in this valley a man who wanted beauty for his fellow-men as he wanted no other thing.’