"It's the only way out.

Take it like a man, and you'll win through! Shirk it and--well, sonny, no shirker ever yet got anything worth having out of life.

You know that as well as I do." Piers straightened himself with a brief laugh.

"Yes, I know that much.
But--I sometimes ask myself if I'm any better than a shirker.

Life is such a beastly farce so far as I am concerned.