‘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.