more than eating myself. "I eat, thou eatest, he eats, we eat, you eat,
they eat"--and what then? Why should every man decline the whole verb.
First person singular is enough for me.'

'You've got to start with material things,' said Gerald. Which
statement Birkin ignored.

'And we've got to live for SOMETHING, we're not just cattle that can
graze and have done with it,' said Gerald.

'Tell me,' said Birkin. 'What do you live for?'

Gerald's face went baffled.

'What do I live for?' he repeated. 'I suppose I live to work, to
produce something, in so far as I am a purposive being. Apart from
that, I live because I am living.'

'And what's your work? Getting so many more thousands of tons of coal
out of the earth every day. And when we've got all the coal we want,
and all the plush furniture, and pianofortes, and the rabbits are all
stewed and eaten, and we're all warm and our bellies are filled and
we're listening to the young lady performing on the pianoforte--what
then? What then, when you've made a real fair start with your material
things?'

Gerald sat laughing at the words and the mocking humour of the other
man. But he was cogitating too.

'We haven't got there yet,' he replied. 'A good many people are still