held men together. It was
mechanical, but then society was a mechanism. Apart from work they were
isolated, free to do as they liked.
    »Oh!« cried Gudrun. »Then we shan't have names any more - we shall be like
the Germans, nothing but Herr Obermeister and Herr Untermeister. I can imagine
it - I am Mrs. Colliery - Manager Crich - I am Mrs. Member-of-Parliament
Roddice. I am Miss Art-Teacher Brangwen. Very pretty that.«
    »Things would work very much better, Miss Art-Teacher Brangwen,« said
Gerald.
    »What things, Mr. Colliery-Manager Crich? The relation between you and me,
par exemple?«
    »Yes, for example,« cried the Italian. »That which is between men and women
-!«
    »That is non-social,« said Birkin, sarcastically.
    »Exactly,« said Gerald. »Between me and a woman, the social question does
not enter. It is my own affair.«
    »A ten-pound note on it,« said Birkin.
    »You don't admit that a woman is a social being?« asked Ursula of Gerald.
    »She is both,« said Gerald. »She is a social being, as far as society is
concerned. But for her own private self, she is a free agent, it is her own
affair, what she does.«
    »But won't it be rather difficult to arrange the two halves?« asked Ursula.
    »Oh no,« replied Gerald. »They arrange themselves naturally - we see it now,
everywhere.«
    »Don't you laugh so pleasantly till you're out of the wood,« said Birkin.
    Gerald knitted his brows in momentary irritation.
    »Was I laughing?« he said.
    »If,« said Hermione at last, »we could only realise that in the spirit we
are all one, all equal in the spirit, all brothers there - the rest wouldn't
matter, there would be no more of this carping and envy and this struggle for
power, which destroys, only destroys.«
    This speech was received in silence, and almost immediately the party rose
from the table. But when the others had gone, Birkin turned round in bitter
declamation, saying:
    »It is just the opposite, just the contrary, Hermione. We are all different
and unequal in spirit - it is only the social differences that are based on
accidental material conditions. We are all abstractly or mathematically