“It is with me,” he said—“often. But I have few resources. I don’t sweat things out like some men in violent exercise. I’ve tried that, but it doesn’t give me any sort of relief. My beastly muscles develop and keep hard without that Sometimes I think they are the only part of me to develop and harden; the rest is non-resistant.”
“A man has his work,” she interjected. “There’s ambition...”
He looked away across the dark waste of waters and answered indifferently.
“I never had any. All that talk about a career—what does it amount to? One man makes a bit of a splash, another doesn’t; but they are both heading the same way, both making for the open sea, which eventually engulfs them. It’s only while they are inshore that the splash is visible; farther out the sea is deep and tranquil; and sometimes it is the man who hasn’t made a splash inshore who keeps up longest and sees well ahead. Those early splashes don’t count for much when the swimmer is done. Death beats us all in the end. It isn’t worth it... ambition... no.”
“Without ambition nothing would be achieved ever,” she said. “Some one’s got to do the things—that are worth doing.”
“Why?” he asked, and smiled at her lazily. She looked down at him, puzzled and hesitating, a little uncertain of her ground. “What are the things worth doing?”
“Don’t you believe that there is a purpose in life?” she asked.
The smile on his face broadened.
“I confess I haven’t given much thought to the matter, but, since you ask me, I suppose there might be some blind purpose even in the life of a mole. It’s all rather futile though, isn’t it? What are you doing? ... What am I doing? ... The obvious answer, of course, is sitting on the shore. Well, that’s about all there is to it—sitting on the shore and talking. Later, well take the plunge and swim out to the deep sea—and that’s the finish. I like best sitting on the shore. It’s very pleasant, isn’t it? Say you are enjoying it—and don’t try to rouse ambition in me; it’s a mean thing at best.”
“It’s a fine thing,” she contradicted. “Very little has ever been achieved without it.”