“Oh, why limit one’s absorption to business?” replied Corthell, sipping his wine. “Is it right for one to be absorbed ‘altogether’ in anything⁠—even in art, even in religion?”

“Oh, religion, I don’t know,” she protested.

“Isn’t that certain contribution,” he hazarded, “which we make to the general welfare, over and above our own individual work, isn’t that the essential? I suppose, of course, that we must hoe, each of us, his own little row, but it’s the stroke or two we give to our neighbour’s row⁠—don’t you think?⁠—that helps most to cultivate the field.”

“But doesn’t religion mean more than a stroke or two?” she ventured to reply.