Page 636 - women-in-love

of the darkness that he is.’
Gerald stood still, suspended in thought.
‘What DO women want, at the bottom?’ he asked.
Birkin shrugged his shoulders.
‘God knows,’ he said. ‘Some satisfaction in basic repul-
sion, it seems to me. They seem to creep down some ghastly
tunnel of darkness, and will never be satisfied till they’ve
come to the end.’
Gerald looked out into the mist of fine snow that was
blowing by. Everywhere was blind today, horribly blind.
‘And what is the end?’ he asked.
Birkin shook his head.
‘I’ve not got there yet, so I don’t know. Ask Loerke, he’s
pretty near. He is a good many stages further than either
you or I can go.’
‘Yes, but stages further in what?’ cried Gerald, irritated.
Birkin sighed, and gathered his brows into a knot of an-
ger.
‘Stages further in social hatred,’ he said. ‘He lives like a
rat, in the river of corruption, just where it falls over into
the bottomless pit. He’s further on than we are. He hates the
ideal more acutely. He HATES the ideal utterly, yet it still
dominates him. I expect he is a Jew—or part Jewish.’
‘Probably,’ said Gerald.
‘He is a gnawing little negation, gnawing at the roots of
life.’
‘But why does anybody care about him?’ cried Gerald.
‘Because they hate the ideal also, in their souls. They
want to explore the sewers, and he’s the wizard rat that

636 Women in Love