“Very much. Yes, I’ve always felt a good deal of interest in it. The human body⁠—yes, I’ve always had an uncommon turn for it. I’ve sometimes asked myself whether I ought not to have been a physician⁠—it wouldn’t have been a bad idea, in a way. Because if you are interested in the body, you must be interested in disease⁠—specially interested, isn’t that so? But it doesn’t signify, I might have been such a lot of things⁠—for example, a clergyman.”

“Indeed?”

“Yes, I’ve sometimes had the idea I should have been decidedly in my element there.”

“How did you come to be an engineer, then?”

“I just happened to⁠—it was more or less outward circumstances that decided the matter.”