ABEL. Good-bye, my friend.
AXEL. Good-bye, my enemy.
ABEL. Enemy?
AXEL. Are you my friend?
ABEL. I don't know. Both and neither. I am a bastard—
AXEL. We are all that, as we are crocheted out of man and woman! Perhaps you have loved me in your way, as you wanted to separate Bertha and me.
ABEL [Rolling a cigarette]. Loved! I wonder how it seems to love? No, I cannot love; I must be deformed—for it made me happy to see you two until the envy of deformity set me on fire. Perhaps you love me?
AXEL. No, on my honor! You have been an agreeable comrade who happened to be dressed like a woman; you have never impressed me as belonging to another sex; and love, you see, can and should exist only between individuals of opposite sexes—
ABEL. Sex love, yes!
AXEL. Is there any other, then?