Gudrun shrugged her shoulders. 'FE M'EN FICHE of your Paradise!' she
said.
'Not being a Mohammedan,' said Gerald. Birkin sat motionless, driving
the car, quite unconscious of what they said. And Gudrun, sitting
immediately behind him, felt a sort of ironic pleasure in thus exposing
him.
'He says,' she added, with a grimace of irony, 'that you can find an
eternal equilibrium in marriage, if you accept the unison, and still
leave yourself separate, don't try to fuse.' 'Doesn't inspire me,' said Gerald.
'That's just it,' said Gudrun.
'I believe in love, in a real ABANDON, if you're capable of it,' said
Gerald.
'So do I,' said she.
'And so does Rupert, too--though he is always shouting.' 'No,' said Gudrun. 'He won't abandon himself to the other person. You
can't be sure of him. That's the trouble I think.' 'Yet he wants marriage! Marriage--ET PUIS?' 'Le paradis!' mocked Gudrun.
Birkin, as he drove, felt a creeping of the spine, as if somebody was
threatening his neck. But he shrugged with indifference. It began to
rain. Here was a change. He stopped the car and got down to put up the
hood.