"
"It does not suit me," said Hollingsworth. "Nor is it my duty to do
so."
"I think it is," replied I.
Hollingsworth frowned; not in passion, but, like fate, inexorably.
"I will not argue the point," said he. "What I desire to know of you
is,--and you can tell me in one word,--whether I am to look for your
cooperation in this great scheme of good? Take it up with me! Be my
brother in it! It offers you (what you have told me, over and over
again, that you most need) a purpose in life, worthy of the extremest
self-devotion,--worthy of martyrdom, should God so order it! In this
view, I present it to you. You can greatly benefit mankind. Your
peculiar faculties, as I shall direct them, are capable of being so
wrought into this enterprise that not one of them need lie idle.
Strike hands with me, and from this moment you shall never again feel
the languor and vague wretchedness of an indolent or half-occupied
man. There may be no more aimless beauty in your life; but, in its
stead, there shall be strength, courage, immitigable will,--
everything that a manly and generous nature should desire! We
shall succeed! We shall have done our best for this miserable world;
and happiness (which never comes but incidentally) will come to us
unawares."
It seemed his intention to say no more. But, after he had quite
broken off, his deep eyes filled with tears, and he held out both his
hands to me.
"Coverdale," he murmured, "there is not the man in this wide world
whom I can love as I could you.
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