“Extraordinary he can be so blind to her charm and qualities ... extraordinary!... I am sometimes ashamed he is my godson.”
“The men in the Currey family have—to put it bluntly—_used_ women. They have never rated them highly. Claudia is a very emotional, highly-strung woman, with all sorts of splendid qualities which he does not appreciate; she was never meant to marry a Currey.”
“In my young days we didn’t hear so much talk of ‘the game,’ this feverish desire to work one’s self into an early grave. Is it a modern failing, doctor?”
“No, men have always sacrificed themselves and devoted their best energies to it, but to-day we are suffering from it in an aggravated form, because most of the things men set their hopes upon are not worth while. It gets worse every year. This craze for luxury, for display—and that comes a good deal from our women-folk—first of all eggs a man on to accumulate money or make a position, then the spirit of the game gets into him, even if he isn’t born with it, and before he has time to turn round and reflect he is in the midst of the scrimmage and he doesn’t want to get out of it. It’s a poison that eats into the very flesh, that corrodes his blood, that makes him blind to the waste of his life. Oh! I’ve been watching it for years.”
“It’s worse in America than it is here, but every day the pace gets hotter, the gambling more feverish. The wrecks of men that have passed through my hands, men that at forty and earlier are practically used up, and no amount of drugs or rest will do them much good! They ‘get through’ the rest of their lives instead of living! While you were in India I practised in New York for a couple of years with Finlay McKay. One man came to me at the beginning of my stay, and begged me to pull him together. I preached a holiday, relaxation. He said ‘No,’ but as soon as he had made a couple of million dollars he’d stop. He’d set himself that task. A year later he came to me in such a frazzled state that I was ashamed of my sex. He’d made his pile, he’d gained his ambition. ‘Now rest,’ said I, ‘you have still a slender chance if you’re careful.’ ‘I can’t, doctor,’ he said. ‘I can’t do anything except work. I’ve done what I set out to do, but I can’t stop now. Life without my work wouldn’t be worth while. I thought it was a bank balance I wanted, but it’s “the game!”’ I told that man I would give him six months if he didn’t clear out of it and go for a long sea voyage. There, in my presence, he deliberately chose the six months. He died in four.... Most men nowadays are crazy to get ahead of other men. To a man, ‘the game’: to a woman, love; for whatever women may do or have done, love for them will always remain the great adventure.”