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The D.H.C. has decided to make a public example of Bernard, and has asked Bernard to meet him and Henry Foster in the Fertilizing Room at the Bloomsbury Centre. The Fertilizing Room has more high-caste workers than any other in the Centre, and the Director explains to Henry that it's important to do it this way, since the greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead others astray. Bernard may be talented, but no offense is so heinous as unorthodoxy of behavior. While murder only kills the individual, the individual can be replaced. Bernard has attacked Society itself. Bernard enters then, and the Director calls the workers to attention. He tells them that Bernard has grossly betrayed the trust given him by his heretical views on sports and soma, the scandalous unorthodoxy of his sex-life, and his refusal to obey Our Ford and behave during his off-hours like an infant. He has proven to be a subverter, he continues, an enemy of Society and a conspirator against Civilization. For that reason, the Director concludes, he proposes to transfer Bernard to a Sub-Centre as far from any Centre of population as possible. He then asks Bernard if he can show any reason why this judgment shouldn't be executed. In a loud voice, Bernard says he can. He then brings in Linda, bloated and sagging, a terrifying monster of middle-agedness. Linda smiles coquettishly at the Director and asks him if he doesn't recognizes her, his Linda. The Director's expression is one of petrified disgust, and the workers explode into laughter. Then Linda announces that he made her have a baby. Everyone falls silent and the Director pales, horrified. She calls to John, who's waiting outside the door. John comes in, kneels at the Director's feet and calls him "father." The comically smutty word causes the workers to erupt into laughter again, and the Director, wild-eyed and humiliated, rushes out of the room. This chapter presents a brief triumph for Bernard, who uses Linda and John to fight back against the Director's attempt to make him conform. But Bernard's general cowardice and the way with which he fights back prevent him from being a hero, in any sense of the word. After this chapter, Bernard will begin to lose importance in the story, precisely because he doesn't have the courage to openly rebel.
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