Bernick: Yes, they have some idea of that sort.
Lona: All the different clubs will assemble with their banners--your name will blaze out in letters of fire--tonight the telegraph will flash the news to every part of the country: "In the bosom of his happy family, Mr. Bernick received the homage of his fellow citizens, as one of the pillars of society."
Bernick: That is so; and they will begin to cheer outside, and the crowd will shout in front of my house until I shall be obliged to go out and bow to them and thank them.
Lona: Obliged to?
Bernick. Do you suppose I shall feel happy at that moment?
Lona: No, I don't suppose you will feel so very happy.
Bernick: Lona, you despise me.
Lona: Not yet.
Bernick: And you have no right to; no right to despise me! Lona, you can have no idea how utterly alone I stand in this cramped and stunted community--where I have had, year after year, to stifle my ambition for a fuller life. My work may seem many-sided, but what have I really accomplished? Odds and ends--scraps. They would not stand anything else here. If I were to go a step in advance of the opinions and views that are current at the moment, I should lose all my influence. Do you know what we are--we who are looked upon as pillars of society? We are nothing more, nor less, than the tools of society.
Lona: Why have you only begun to realise that now?