'It is in some way
irrevocable.'
'Yes, I agree,' said Birkin.
'No matter how one regards legal marriage, yet to enter into the
married state, in one's own personal instance, is final-'
'I believe it is,' said Birkin, 'somewhere.'
'The question remains then, should one do it,' said Gerald.
Birkin watched him narrowly, with amused eyes.
'You are like Lord Bacon, Gerald,' he said. 'You argue it like a
lawyer--or like Hamlet's to-be-or-not-to-be. If I were you I would NOT
marry: but ask Gudrun, not me. You're not marrying me, are you?'
Gerald did not heed the latter part of this speech.
'Yes,' he said, 'one must consider it coldly. It is something critical.
One comes to the point where one must take a step in one direction or
another. And marriage is one direction-'
'And what is the other?' asked Birkin quickly.
Gerald looked up at him with hot, strangely-conscious eyes, that the
other man could not understand.
'I can't say,' he replied. 'If I knew THAT--' He moved uneasily on his
feet, and did not finish.
Pages:
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733