"Why would you like it?"
"Because I must have a hand in the general business."
"What do you mean by that?"
Willie set forth Hector Macallaster's way of thinking about such matters.
"Very good—very good indeed!" remarked Mr Shepherd. "But why, then, should you prefer being a doctor to being a shoemaker? Is it because you will get better paid for it?"
"I never thought of that," returned Willie. "Of course I should be better paid—for Hector couldn't keep a horse, and a horse I must have, else some of my patients would be dead before I could get to them. But that's not why I want to be a doctor. It's because I want to help people."
"What makes you want to help people?"
"Because it's the best thing you can do with yourself."
"Who told you that?"
"I don't know. It seems as if everybody and everything had been teaching me that, ever since I can remember."