Tietjens said:
"Oh, I know pretty well. As soon as this weather really breaks we're probably done."
"We can't," Levin said, "possibly hold them. Not possibly."
"But success or failure," Tietjens said, "have nothing to do with the credit of a story. And a consideration of the virtues of humanity does not omit the other side. If we lose they win. If success is necessary to your idea of virtue—virtus—they then provide the success instead of ourselves. But the thing is to be able to stick to the integrity of your character, whatever earthquake sets the house tumbling over your head. . . . That, thank God, we're doing. . . ."
Levin said:
"I don't know. ... If you knew what is going on at home . . ."
Tietjens said:
"Oh, I know. . . . I know that ground as I know the palm of my hand. I could invent that life if I knew nothing at all about the facts."
Levin said:
"I believe you could." He added: "Of course you could. . . . And yet the only use we can make of you is to martyrize you because two drunken brutes break into your wife's bedroom. . . ."