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.
FEJEVARY: How do you know what I've had? You have no way of knowing
what's in me--what other thing I might have been? You know my heritage;
you think that's left nothing? But I find myself here in America. I love
those dependent on me. My wife--who's used to a certain manner of
living; my children--who are to become part of the America of their
time. I've never said this to another human being--I've never looked at
myself--but it's pretty arrogant to think you're the only man who has
made a sacrifice to fit himself into the age in which he lives.
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