the end of the earth

He learned the universal language of the milieu: the language of indirection, gesture, and the significant glance. Honesty and dishonesty existed in such completely equal measure that it was impossible to distinguish between them. The lack of truth in most of the sharp, witty, and fantastic exchanges that passed for conversation was so obvious and so enormous that it was no longer untruth. There was no way of separating fact from fiction, nor was there any reason to do so. Under the guise of endearments or highly civilized verbal cruelties existed an elaborate, formalized, and continuous chase. Everyone was hunting, hunted, searching and searched, wanting and wanted. The aim was constant and unchanging: conquest. Not one conquest, but continuous conquest, from one victory to another, for it was the conquest alone that was important and never the prize.

From Finistère, Fritz Peters