What a complicated system the man’s essence is! Scarcely anyone would even think about the possible frailness and invulnerability of any man’s nature in particular circumstances. Scarcely anyone would care about someone’s preferences in this or that sphere, especially if the whole society is of the same opinion, and only one appears to be weird, not strikingly different, though, but indisputably measuring life in some other dimensions. The phrase like “make money” has become the key for understanding all the instincts, all the purposes and all the desires and meaning of life for the society, the “elite” which was even anticipating the War with the impatience. How could they know about the real sordidness!
George Winterbourne, when deciding for his career, did not seem to think much of the benefit his career might bring him. That can tell about his light-mindedness, but at the same time there was some other aspect about his nature, rather romantic that was making him a sheer ignoramus and unnecessary in the circle of modern people, such as Mr. Shobbe, Mr. Bobbe, Mr. Upjohn, his wife Elizabeth, mother and the like, strangers to him with their concepts and ideas of what the life of a modern man should be. ‘To be fashionable’ was their creed.…
