The Half-Hearted by John Buchan

The Half Hearted (1900) tells the story of the shallow Lewis Haystoun, a guest at a Scottish country house party, who falls in love, then goes off to India and gives his life for a nobler cause. According to Wikipedia, John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchans 100 works include nearly thirty novels, seven collections of short stories and biographies of Sir Walter Scott, Caesar Augustus, and Oliver Cromwell. Buchans most famous of his books were the spy thrillers (including) The 39 Steps (which was converted to a play as well as an Alfred Hitchcock movie starring Robert Donat as Richard Hannay, though with Buchans story much altered.) The last Buchan (as Graham Greene entitled his appreciative review) was the 1941 novel Sick Heart River (American title: Mountain Meadow), in which a dying protagonist confronts in the Canadian wilderness the questions of the meaning of life. The insightful quotation Its a great life, if you dont weaken is famously attributed to Buchan, as is No great cause is ever lost or won, The battle must always be renewed, And the creed must always be restated.