Was he poking fun, or not?
'At this moment, I couldn't say off-hand,' he replied, with faintly
ironic humour.
'Do you think love is the be-all and the end-all of life?' Birkin
asked, with direct, attentive seriousness.
'Of my own life?' said Gerald.
'Yes.'
There was a really puzzled pause.
'I can't say,' said Gerald. 'It hasn't been, so far.'
'What has your life been, so far?'
'Oh--finding out things for myself--and getting experiences--and making
things GO.'
Birkin knitted his brows like sharply moulded steel.
'I find,' he said, 'that one needs some one REALLY pure single
activity--I should call love a single pure activity. But I DON'T really
love anybody--not now.'
'Have you ever really loved anybody?' asked Gerald.
'Yes and no,' replied Birkin.
'Not finally?' said Gerald.
'Finally--finally--no,' said Birkin.
'Nor I,' said Gerald.
'And do you want to?' said Birkin.
Gerald looked with a long, twinkling, almost sardonic look into the
eyes of the other man.
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