Birkin laughed quickly.

‘How do I know what it will be!’ he said. ‘Don’t lambaste me with my own parallels-’

Gerald pondered a while.

‘But I should like to know your opinion, exactly,’ he said.

‘On your marriage? — or marrying? Why should you want my opinion? I’ve got no opinions. I’m not interested in legal marriage, one way or another. It’s a mere question of convenience.’

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-’