"I've donepretty well, " he said, "but the strange thing is that I owe it allto one piece of luck. ""What doyou mean by that?""Well, doyou remember Abraham? He was the man who had the future. When we were studentshe beat me all along the line. He got the prizes and the scholarships that Iwent in for. I always played second fiddle to him. If he'd kept on he'd be inthe position I'm in now. That man had a genius for surgery. No one had a lookin with him. When he was appointed Registrar at Thomas's I hadn't a chance ofgetting on the staff. I should have had to become a G. P. , and you know whatlikelihood there is for a G. P. ever to get out of the common rut. But Abrahamfell out, and I got the job. That gave me my opportunity. ""I daresay that's true. ""It wasjust luck. I suppose there was some kink in Abraham. Poor devil, he's gone tothe dogs altogether. He's got some twopenny-halfpenny job in the medical atAlexandria -- sanitary officer or something like that. I'm told he lives withan ugly old Greek woman and has half a dozen scrofulous kids. The fact is, Isuppose, that it's not enough to have brains. The thing that counts ischaracter. Abraham hadn't got character. "“我混得不错，”他说，“但是奇怪的是，这一切都归功于我偶然交了一个好运。”“我不懂你说的是什么意思？”“不懂？你还记得阿伯拉罕吧？应该飞黄腾达的本该是他。做学生的时候，他处处把我打得惨败。奖金也好，助学金也好，都被他从我手里夺去；哪次我都甘拜下风。如果他这样继续下去，我现在的地位就是他的了。他对于外科手术简直是个天才。谁也无法同他竞争。当他被指派为圣·托玛斯附属医学院注册员的时候，我是绝对没有希望进入领导机构的。我只能开业当个医生，你也知道，一个普通开业行医的人有多大可能跳出这个槽槽去。但是阿伯拉罕却让位了，他的位子让我弄到手了。这样就给了我步步高升的机会了。”“我想你说的话是真的。”“这完全是运气。我想，阿伯拉罕这人心理一定变态了。这个可怜虫，一点儿救也没有了。他在亚历山大港卫生部门找了个小差事——检疫员什么的。有人告诉我，他同一个丑陋的希腊老婆子住在一起，生了半打长着瘰疬疙瘩的小崽子。所以我想，问题不在于一个人脑子聪明不聪明，真正重要的是要有个性。阿伯拉罕缺少的正是个性。”