Once you accepted your destiny.

Your feet were firmly planted upon the great ladder.

You could have climbed--where you would." A curious quietness seemed to have crept over Mannering.

When he answered, his voice seemed to rise scarcely above a whisper.
"My friend," he said, "it was not worth while!" Borrowdean was almost angry.
"Not worth while," he repeated, contemptuously.

"Is it worth while, then, to play golf, to linger in your flower gardens, to become a dilettante student, to dream away your days in the idleness of a purely enervating culture?
What is it that I heard you yourself say once--that life apart from one's fellows must always lack robustness.