Robert William Chambers

The Fighting Chance Annotated Robert William Chambers

"What was it you were saying about selfishness?" she asked. "Oh, I remember. It was nonsense." "Certainly." She laughed, adding: "Selfishness is so simply defined you know." "Is it? How." "A refusal to renounce. That covers everything," she concluded. "Sometimes renunciation is weakness -- isn't it?" he suggested. "In what case for example?" "Well, suppose we take love." "Very well, you may take it if you like it." "Suppose you loved a man!" he insisted. "Let him beware! What then?" "-- And, suppose it would distress your family if you married him?" "I'd give him up." "If you loved him?" "Love? That is the poorest excuse for selfishness, Mr. Siward." "So you would ruin your happiness and his --" "A girl ought to find more happiness in renouncing a selfish love than in love itself," announced Miss Landis with that serious conviction characteristic of her years.