Lost Horizon
A classic adventure novel about a hidden Himalayan utopia called Shangri-La and the Westerners who discover it.
Conway could not repress a feeling that was always his in the presence of any superb and indisputable competence. He was so used to being appealed to for help that mere awareness of some one who would neither ask nor need it was slightly tranquilizing, even amidst the greater perplexities of the future.
No one was capable of harder work, when it had to be done, and few could better shoulder responsibility; but the facts remained that he was not passionately fond of activity, and did not enjoy responsibility at all. Both were included in his job, and he made the best of them, but he was always ready to give way to any one else who could function as well or better.
“I once ran for a train and felt just like this,” she answered. So also, Conway reflected, there were people who considered cider was just like champagne. It was a matter of palate.
He was like a mathematician with an abstruse problem—worrying over it, but worrying very calmly and impersonally.