“It may strike you as we proceed. If you stop to consider whether it’s judicious to reach out for the thing you want, you generally end by not getting it or anything else. Isn’t it better to clutch with courage, even if you have to face the cost?”
“I’m not sure,” said Weston, dryly. “Is it quite impossible to like a thing it is desirable that you should have?”
“One doesn’t often like it,” explained Grenfell, with a grin. “Even when one does, the same principle applies. As a rule, one can’t get it without a sacrifice.”
“That’s the principle you acted on?”
Grenfell spread out his hands.
“I guess it is,” he said. “In my case the thing I wanted wasn’t good for me. I had to choose between my profession and whisky, and I did. Anyway, I’ve had the whisky.”
Weston sat thoughtfully silent a minute or two. It seemed to him that while the result of the course his comrade advocated might well prove to be disastrous, as it had certainly done in his particular case, there was a warranty for it. If it were true that practically nothing could be obtained without cost, it was clear that the excess of prudence which shrank from incurring the latter could lead only to aridity of life. The thoughtless courage which snatched at what was offered seemed a much more fruitful thing, though one might afterward bear the smart as well as enjoy the sweet. To accomplish or obtain anything one must at least face a risk. He remembered how, when he clung hesitating to the slippery rock, Ida Stirling had bidden him jump. He was, however, not a moralist, but a man with a simple code which, a few hours ago, had proved singularly difficult to adhere to. He had then seen something in Ida Stirling’s eyes that set his nerves tingling, but he could not take advantage of the momentary reaction of relief at his escape. He wondered, though, why Grenfell had spoken as he had, until the latter turned to him again.
“You mentioned that you nearly pulled Miss Stirling in when she held out that rod,” he said. “You didn’t notice that she showed any signs of letting it go?”
“I don’t think she did.”
“You don’t think so!” laughed Grenfell. “That girl would have gone right down the fall before she let you go. She’s the kind that sees things through. I wonder whether she said anything in particular afterward?”