Page 267 - lady-chatterlys-lover

’Who’s shirking their responsibility now!’ he said. ‘Who
is trying to get away NOW from the responsibility of their
own boss-ship, as you call it?’
’But I don’t want any boss-ship,’ she protested.
’Ah! But that is funk. You’ve got it: fated to it. And you
should live up to it. Who has given the colliers all they have
that’s worth having: all their political liberty, and their
education, such as it is, their sanitation, their health-condi-
tions, their books, their music, everything. Who has given
it them? Have colliers given it to colliers? No! All the Wrag-
bys and Shipleys in England have given their part, and must
go on giving. There’s your responsibility.’
Connie listened, and flushed very red.
’I’d like to give something,’ she said. ‘But I’m not allowed.
Everything is to be sold and paid for now; and all the things
you mention now, Wragby and Shipley SELLS them to the
people, at a good prof it. Everything is sold. You don’t give
one heart-beat of real sympathy. And besides, who has taken
away from the people their natural life and manhood, and
given them this industrial horror? Who has done that?’
’And what must I do?’ he asked, green. ‘Ask them to come
and pillage me?’
’Why is Tevershall so ugly, so hideous? Why are their
lives so hopeless?’
’They built their own Tevershall, that’s part of their
display of freedom. They built themselves their pretty Te-
vershall, and they live their own pretty lives. I can’t live
their lives for them. Every beetle must live its own life.’
’But you make them work for you. They live the life of

Lady Chatterly’s Lover