"Soothing and comforting of the nerves—aids to thought—powerful helps to good humour—something to do—"
"There! now you have it. Philip you are talking nonsense. Your nerves are as steady and sound as a granite mountain; you can think without help of any extraneous kind; your good-humour is quite as fair as most people's; but—you do want something to do! I cannot bear to have you waste your life in smoke, be it never so fragrant."
"What would you have me do?"
"Anything! so you were hard at work, and doing work."
"There is nothing for me to do."
"That cannot be," said she, shaking her head.
"Propose something."
"You have no need to work for yourself," she said; "so it must be for other people. Say politics."
"If ever there was anything carried on purely for selfish interests, it is the business you name."
"The more need for some men to go into it not for self, but for the country."