and he so turned and smiled as best he could and took orders and people took their drinks and thanked him and he said it is a pleasure , and he dispensed such mild relief to suffering secretaries and bookkeepers and shop girls and mail room boys , and he speculated upon love and knew as he had always known that to love was to do and not to have , and that even if his heart was to be broken he would still do the best he could to give people small kindnesses and mild relief from suffering , and even merely bear witness to people and their pain and their exultation , which seemed to him now to be the most important thing of all .