Still Gerald watched him closely.
“More than that, I think,” he said seriously. “However you may be bored by the ethics of marriage, yet really to marry, in one’s own personal case, is something critical, final—”
“You mean there is something final in going to the registrar with a woman?”
“If you’re coming back with her, I do,” said Gerald. “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?”