Gerald took a little time to re-adjust himself after this tirade.

‘Would you have us live without houses — return to nature?’ he asked.

‘I would have nothing at all. People only do what they want to do — and what they are capable of doing. If they were capable of anything else, there would be something else.’

Again Gerald pondered. He was not going to take offence at Birkin.

‘Don’t you think the collier’s PIANOFORTE, as you call it, is a symbol for something very real, a real desire for something higher, in the collier’s life?’

‘Higher!’ cried Birkin. ‘Yes. Amazing heights of upright grandeur. It makes him so much higher in his neighbouring collier’s