Page 46 - lady-chatterlys-lover

cooking. You’re quite right. It even needs posterity. But it all
hinges on the instinct for success. That is the pivot on which
all things turn.’
Hammond looked rather piqued. He was rather proud
of the integrity of his mind, and of his NOT being a time-
server. None the less, he did want success.
’It’s quite true, you can’t live without cash,’ said May.
‘You’ve got to have a certain amount of it to be able to live
and get along...even to be free to THINK you must have a
certain amount of money, or your stomach stops you. But it
seems to me you might leave the labels off sex. We’re free to
talk to anybody; so why shouldn’t we be free to make love to
any woman who inclines us that way?’
’There speaks the lascivious Celt,’ said Clifford.
’Lascivious! well, why not—? I can’t see I do a woman any
more harm by sleeping with her than by dancing with her...
or even talking to her about the weather. It’s just an inter-
change of sensations instead of ideas, so why not?’
’Be as promiscuous as the rabbits!’ said Hammond.
’Why not? What’s wrong with rabbits? Are they any
worse than a neurotic, revolutionary humanity, full of ner-
vous hate?’
’But we’re not rabbits, even so,’ said Hammond.
’Precisely! I have my mind: I have certain calculations
to make in certain astronomical matters that concern me
almost more than life or death. Sometimes indigestion
interferes with me. Hunger would interfere with me di-
sastrously. In the same way starved sex interferes with me.
What then?’