"When you're sent to cut through an icy rock or re-lay the steel across the gap a snowslide has made, it's obvious if you have done the job or not.

This has some drawbacks, because if you don't make good, you often get fired." "But that was not what drove you on.

You must have had a better motive for making good." Festing felt embarrassed.

The girl was obviously not indulging a sentimental vein.

She felt what she frankly hinted at, and although he generally avoided imaginative talk, her remarks did not sound cheap or ridiculous.
"Well," he said, "the fear of getting fired is a pretty strong incentive to do one's best, but I suppose when one gets up against big things there is something else.