'
'I think not.'
'It's a huge misfortune, this will-o'-the-wisp attraction
exercised by London on young men of brains. They come here to be
degraded, or to perish, when their true sphere is a life of
peaceful remoteness. The type of man capable of success in London
is more or less callous and cynical. If I had the training of
boys, I would teach them to think of London as the last place
where life can be lived worthily.'
'And the place where you are most likely to die in squalid
wretchedness.'
'The one happy result of my experiences,' said Reardon, is that
they have cured me of ambition. What a miserable fellow I should
be if I were still possessed with the desire to make a name! I
can't even recall very clearly that state of mind. My strongest
desire now is for peaceful obscurity. I am tired out; I want to
rest for the remainder of my life.'
'You won't have much rest at Croydon.'
'Oh, it isn't impossible. My time will be wholly occupied in a
round of all but mechanical duties, and I think that will be the
best medicine for my mind. I shall read very little, and that
only in the classics.
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