. . pursued also by something or some one. A figure to whom
this world offered only opportunities for sin and failure and
defeat, but a figure to whom this world was the merest shadow
hiding, as a shade hides a lamp, the life within. Wretched enough
with its bad health, its growing corpulence, its weak mouth, its
furtive desires, but despising, nevertheless, the strong, healthy
figure beside it. Thurston was right. Men are not born to be free,
but to fight, to the very death, for the imprisonment and
destruction of all that is easiest and most physically active and
most pleasant to the sight and touch . . .
"And so Hector really hopes that he'll be able to get down to us for
Christmas, although he's been asked to go on this reading party. Of
course, it's simply a question as to whether he works better at home
or with his friends. If he were a weak character, I think Mr. Alweed
would insist in his coming home, but Hector really cares for his
work more than anything. He's never been very good at games; his
short sight prevents him, poor boy, and as he very justly remarked,
when he was home last holidays, 'I don't see, mother, how I am going
to do my duty as a solicitor (that's what he hopes to be) if I don't
work now.
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