place and out of time.
But Gerald was now on the scent of argument.
'A race may have its commercial aspect,' he said. 'In fact it must. It
is like a family. You MUST make provision. And to make provision you
have got to strive against other families, other nations. I don't see
why you shouldn't.'
Again Hermione made a pause, domineering and cold, before she replied:
'Yes, I think it is always wrong to provoke a spirit of rivalry. It
makes bad blood. And bad blood accumulates.'
'But you can't do away with the spirit of emulation altogether?' said
Gerald. 'It is one of the necessary incentives to production and
improvement.'
'Yes,' came Hermione's sauntering response. 'I think you can do away
with it.'
'I must say,' said Birkin, 'I detest the spirit of emulation.' Hermione
was biting a piece of bread, pulling it from between her teeth with her
fingers, in a slow, slightly derisive movement. She turned to Birkin.
'You do hate it, yes,' she said, intimate and gratified.
'Detest it,' he repeated.
'Yes,' she murmured, assured and satisfied.
'But,' Gerald insisted, 'you don't allow one man to take away his
neighbour's living, so why should you allow one nation to take away the
living from another nation?'
There was a long slow murmur from Hermione before she broke into
speech, saying with a laconic indifference:
'It is not always a question of possessions, is it? It is not all a
question of goods?'
Gerald was nettled by this implication of vulgar materialism.
'Yes, more or less,' he retorted. 'If I go and take a man's hat from
off his head, that hat becomes a symbol of that man's liberty. When he
fights me for his hat, he is fighting me for his liberty.'
Hermione was nonplussed.
'Yes,' she said, irritated. 'But that way of arguing by imaginary
instances is not supposed to be genuine, is it? A man does NOT come and
take my hat from off my head, does he?'
'Only because the law prevents him,' said Gerald.
'Not only,' said Birkin. 'Ninety-nine men out of a hundred don't want
my hat.'
'That's a matter of opinion,' said Gerald.
'Or the hat,' laughed the bridegroom.
'And if he does want my hat, such as it is,' said Birkin, 'why, surely
it is open to me to decide, which is a greater loss to me, my hat, or
my liberty as a free and indifferent man. If I am compelled to offer
fight, I lose the latter. It is a question which is worth more to me,
my pleasant liberty of conduct, or my hat.'
'Yes,' said Hermione, watching Birkin strangely. 'Yes.'
'But would you let somebody come and snatch your hat off your head?'
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