'Of nothing.'
'Now we touch bottom!' cried Malkin. 'Philosophically speaking, I agree with you. But we have to live our lives, and I suppose we must direct ourselves by some conscious principle.'
'I don't see the necessity,' Peak replied, still in an impassive tone. 'We may very well be guided by circumstances as they arise. To be sure, there's a principle in that, but I take it you mean something different.'
'Yes I do. I hold that the will must direct circumstances, not receive its impulse from them. How, then, are we to be guided? What do you set before yourself?'
'To get through life with as much satisfaction and as little pain as possible.'
'You are a hedonist, then. Well and good! Then that is your conscious principle'—
'No, it isn't.'
'How am I to understand you?'
'By recognising that a man's intellectual and moral principles as likely as not tend to anything but his happiness.'
'I can't admit it!' exclaimed Malkin, leaping from his chair. 'What is happiness?'