Page:Firecrackers a realistic novel.pdf/115

 mination. Each can be what he desires to make himself.

Once again Campaspe forfeited an opportunity for asking the obvious question. She appeared to be meditating. And those philosophers in their ivory towers, those desert monks, those astronomers, she insisted, are they not striving to make themselves what they want to be?

It is not enough, Gunnar averred simply. Nothing is enough.

And what is the end of the quest?

There is no end to the quest. There never can be.

Campaspe went back. I fear, she remarked, that Paul has embarked on a ship which has no destination in view. How much happier he might be had he remained safely at home.

Happier, quite possibly. Worthier, no.

I doubt if Paul were created to be a worthy person.

It is his step.

It is your example.

It is, he maintained, a little complacently, Campaspe thought, a good one.

Should I, too, follow it?

That depends entirely on your inclination.

I am interested in your ideas.

You do not know what they are. There was a touch of tragic brusqueness in this retort.