The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: duty, 'I don't know where the cabin-table is.' It was
like an absurd dream.
"Do you know what he wanted next? Well, he
wanted to trim the yards. Very placidly, and as if lost
in thought, he insisted on having the foreyard squared.
'I don't know if there's anybody alive,' said Mahon,
almost tearfully. 'Surely,' he said gently, 'there will
be enough left to square the foreyard.'
"The old chap, it seems, was in his own berth, wind-
ing up the chronometers, when the shock sent him spin-
ning. Immediately it occurred to him--as he said after-
 Youth |