Birkin could not help seeing how beautiful and soldierly his face was, with a certain courage to be indifferent.

‘You think its heavy odds against us?’ said Birkin.

‘If we’ve got to make our life up out of a woman, one woman, woman only, yes, I do,’ said Gerald. ‘I don’t believe I shall ever make up MY life, at that rate.’

Birkin watched him almost angrily.

‘You are a born unbeliever,’ he said.

‘I only feel what I feel,’ said Gerald. And he looked again at Birkin almost sardonically, with his blue, manly, sharp-lighted eyes. Birkin’s eyes were at the moment full of anger. But swiftly they became troubled,