"Which, by the way, very elaborately arranged, and embellished with thousands of psychological phases, products of the most highly specialized part of me, is exactly what my home would be."
"Well, I certainly should deplore your household."
"Go as far as you like. It ought to be a fairly comfortable home, with its basis on frankness, oughtn't it, Claire?"
Philip's eyes flashed.
Claire hesitated, fearing lest she provoke him further, and said cautiously: "Yes, it ought to be based on frankness."
"But frankness doesn't mean an attitude of mind like that," Philip protested.
"What does it mean?" Lawrence asked.
"It means an established order where love makes it possible for two beings to speak their thoughts freely one to the other," Philip said, with the air of defining infinity.
"Does it? Well, if that is frankness by definition, I have known many women with whom I was in love, but neither they nor I knew it until this minute."
Lawrence laughed. Philip flushed, shrugged his shoulders, and stood up.