... in order to
impress them with his cleverness, and their answer to him filled him
with a sense of inferiority. He felt that they must despise him, and
feeling that, he began to despise himself.

"My own feeling about these things," said Ninian, "is perfectly simple.
I believe in lust. I'm a lustful man myself, and so, I believe, is
Roger!..."

"No, I'm not," Roger exclaimed.

"Well, I am," Ninian proceeded. "Lust is the motor force of the
world...."

"No, it isn't," Gilbert interrupted. "The whole of civilisation depends
upon the human stomach. If men would live without eating ... the whole
of this society would dissolve. Lust is subordinate to the stomach,
Ninian. You've never seen a starving man in a purple passion, have you?"

Ninian leant forward and tapped the table with his knuckles. "I say that
lust is the motor force of the world," he said, "and I think you might
let me finish my sentences, Gilbert. You are so eager to vent your own
views that you won't let any one else vent his...."

"What's the good of venting your views if they're wrong, damn it!" said
Gilbert.

"Well, let me finish venting 'em anyhow. Assuming that I'm right, I say
you should treat lust exactly as you treat the circulation of your
blood: don't fuss about it. It's a natural function, neither beautiful
nor ugly. It's just there, and that's all about it. The fellow who
dithers about it as if he'd invented a new philosophy on the day he
first slept with a woman, is a dirty, neurotic ass. So is the fellow who
pretends that there's no such thing as sex in the world. Male and female
created He them, and I can tell you, He jolly well knew what He was up
to!"

Roger flicked the ash from his cigarette and coughed slightly.

"I think," he said, "we talk too much about these things. They pass the
time, of course, but not very profitably. Whatever the Universal Motive
may be ... I'm talking, of course, without prejudice ... it'll express
itself in complete disregard of our feelings and views. I have had no
experience of women otherwise than in the capacity of a mother, several
aunts, a nurse, a number of cousins, and also some waitresses in
restaurants...."

"Roger's never kissed a woman in a sexual sense in his life," Gilbert
interrupted.

"I have never seen the necessity of it," Roger said.

"But aren't you curious to know what it's like? After all, it's a form
of experience," Henry asked, looking at Roger with curiosity.

"Having