One February morning, Clifford--in his motorized wheelchair--and Connie go for a walk in the woods on the Chatterley estate. The beauty of the untamed English countryside still survives in the forest, but the sulphurous smell of the coal mines encroaches on the wildness, and ubiquitous are places where the trees have been cut down to provide lumber for the war effort. Clifford speaks of his responsibility to preserve the woods as they were before the war. He is concerned also with preserving the Chatterley line and the aristocracy as guardians of tradition. To this end he urges Connie to have a child with another man, a child who could be brought up as heir to the Chatterley estate. Connie's having sex with another man, Clifford believes, would not be important, a momentary contact incomparable to the long marriage, the intertwining of lives. Connie agrees, although inwardly she foresees a time when she will become uncomfortable bound into a lifelong marriage. Immediately after Clifford and Connie's conversation, Mellors, the gamekeeper, comes into view. Clifford bids him accompany them to help the wheelchair up any hills. Mellors treats Clifford with cold respect, and utterly ignores Connie. He carries himself with a kind of innate nobility and aloof dignity.