 a
new proposition.
    »She oughtn't? Why?«
    »She's a queer child - a special child, more special even than you. And in
my opinion special children should never be sent away to school. Only moderately
ordinary children should be sent to school - so it seems to me.«
    »I'm inclined to think just the opposite. I think it would probably make her
more normal if she went away and mixed with other children.«
    »She wouldn't mix, you see. You never really mixed, did you? And she
wouldn't be willing even to pretend to. She's proud, and solitary, and naturally
apart. If she has a single nature, why do you want to make her gregarious?«
    »No, I don't want to make her anything. But I think school would be good for
her.«
    »Was it good for you?«
    Gerald's eyes narrowed uglily. School had been torture to him. Yet he had
not questioned whether one should go through this torture. He seemed to believe
in education through subjection and torment.
    »I hated it at the time, but I can see it was necessary,« he said. »It
brought me into line a bit - and you can't live unless you do come into line
somewhere.«
    »Well,« said Birkin, »I begin to think that you can't live unless you keep
entirely out of the line. It's no good trying to toe the line, when your one
impulse is to smash up the line. Winnie is a special nature, and for special
natures you must give a special world.«
    »Yes, but where's your special world?« said Gerald.
    »Make it. Instead of chopping yourself down to fit the world, chop the world
down to fit yourself. As a matter of fact, two exceptional people make another
world. You and I, we make another, separate world. You don't want a world same
as your brothers-in-law. It's just the special quality you value. Do you want to
be normal or ordinary? It's a lie. You want to be free and extraordinary, in an
extraordinary world of liberty.«
    Gerald looked at Birkin with subtle eyes of knowledge. But he would never
openly admit what he felt. He knew more than Birkin, in one direction - much
more. And this gave him his gentle love for the other man, as if Birkin were
