“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.