CECIL [_roused to sit up by this question_]. Ashamed of it? Ashamed of being in love? How can you say such a thing! Of course I'm not ashamed. What's the good of being alive at all if one isn't to be in love? I'm perpetually in love. In fact, I'm hardly ever out of love--with somebody. EVELYN [_still furious_]. Then if you're in love, why don't you get engaged? A man has no business to make love to a girl and not be engaged to her. It's not right. CECIL [_reasoning with her_]. That's the parents' fault. I told you parents were preposterous people. They won't allow me to get engaged. EVELYN. Why not? CECIL. Oh, for different reasons. They say I'm not _serious_ enough. Or that I don't work enough. Or that I haven't got enough money. Or else they simply say they "don't think I'm fitted to make their daughter happy." Anyhow, they won't sanction an engagement. They all agree about _that_. Your mother would be just the same. [_Impatient exclamation from Evelyn._] I don't blame her. I don't say she's not right. I don't say they haven't all been right. In fact, I believe they _have_ been right. I'm only explaining how it is. EVELYN [_savagely_]. I see how it is. You don't really want to be married. CECIL. Of course I don't _want_ to be married. Nobody does unless he's perfectly idiotic. One wants to be in love. Being in love's splendid. And I dare say being engaged isn't bad--though I've had no experience of that so far. But being married must be simply hateful. EVELYN [_boiling with rage_]. Nonsense! How can it be hateful to be married if it's splendid to be in love? [_The cuckoo is heard._] CECIL. Have you forgotten the cuckoo? EVELYN. Oh!!! CECIL. No ties, no responsibilities, no ghastly little villa with children bellowing in the nursery. Just life in the open hedgerow. Life and love. Happy cuckoo! EVELYN [_furious_]. I think cuckoos detestable. They're mean, horrid, _disgusting_ birds. CECIL. No. No. I can't have you abusing cuckoos. They're particular friends of mine. In fact, I'm a sort of cuckoo myself. EVELYN [_turning on him_]. Oh, I hate you! I hate you! [_Stamps her foot._] CECIL [_with quiet conviction_]. You don't. EVELYN. I do! CECIL [_shaking his head_]. You don't. [_Quite gravely._] One never really hates the people one has once loved. [_He looks into her eyes. For a moment or two she returns his gaze fiercely. Then her eyes fall and they fill with tears._] EVELYN [_half crying_]. How horrid you are to say that! CECIL. Why? EVELYN. Because it's true, I suppose. Ah, I'm so unhappy! [_Begins to cry._] CECIL [_genuinely distressed_]. Eve! You're crying. You mustn't do that. I can't bear seeing people cry. [_Lays hand on her shoulder._] EVELYN [_shaking it off_]. Don't. I can't bear you to touch me. After falling in love with one girl after another like that. When I thought you were only in love with me. CECIL. So I am only in love with you--now.