A to Z Classics - Complete Works Of Oscar Wilde (Best Navigation) (A to Z Classics)

He has had a very interesting and brilliant career. And he has married a most admirable wife. Lady Chiltern is a woman of the very highest principles, I am glad to say. I am a little too old now, myself, to trouble about setting a good example, but I always admire people who do. And Lady Chiltern has a ·46· very ennobling effect on life, though her dinner-parties are rather dull sometimes. But one can’t have everything, can one? And now I must go, dear. Shall I call for you to-morrow?

mrs. cheveley

Thanks.

lady markby

We might drive in the Park at five. Everything looks so fresh in the Park now!

mrs. cheveley

Except the people!

lady markby

Perhaps the people are a little jaded. I have often observed that the Season as it goes on produces a kind of softening of the brain. However, I think anything is better than high intellectual pressure. That is the most unbecoming thing there is. It makes the noses of the young girls so particularly large. And there is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose, men don’t like them. Good-night, dear! [ To Lady Chiltern .] Good-night, Gertrude! [ Goes out on Lord Caversham’s arm .]

mrs. cheveley

What a charming house you have, Lady Chiltern! ·47· I have spent a delightful evening. It has been so interesting getting to know your husband.

lady chiltern

Why did you wish to meet my husband, Mrs. Cheveley?

mrs. cheveley

Oh, I will tell you. I wanted to interest him in this Argentine Canal scheme, of which I dare say you have heard. And I found him most susceptible,—susceptible to reason, I mean. A rare thing in a man. I converted him in ten minutes. He is going to make a speech in the House to-morrow night in favour of the idea. We must go to the Ladies’ Gallery and hear him! It will be a great occasion!

lady chiltern

There must be some mistake. That scheme could never have my husband’s support.

mrs. cheveley

Oh, I assure you it’s all settled. I don’t regret my tedious journey from Vienna now. It has been a great success. But, of course, for the next twenty-four hours the whole thing is a dead secret.

lady chiltern

[ Gently .] A secret? Between whom?

·48· mrs. cheveley

[ With a flash of amusement in her eyes .] Between your husband and myself.

sir robert chiltern

[ Entering .] Your carriage is here, Mrs. Cheveley!

mrs. cheveley

Thanks! Good evening, Lady Chiltern! Good-night, Lord Goring! I am at Claridge’s. Don’t you think you might leave a card?

lord goring

If you wish it, Mrs. Cheveley!

mrs. cheveley

Oh, don’t be so solemn about it, or I shall be obliged to leave a card on you. In England I suppose that would be hardly considered en règle . Abroad, we are more civilized. Will you see me down, Sir Robert? Now that we have both the same interests at heart we shall be great friends, I hope!

[ Sails out on Sir Robert Chiltern’s arm. Lady Chiltern goes to the top of the staircase and looks down at them as they descend. Her expression is troubled. After a little time she is joined by some of the guests, and passes with them into another reception-room .]

·49· mabel chiltern

What a horrid woman!

lord goring

You should go to bed, Miss Mabel.

mabel chiltern

Lord Goring!

lord goring

My father told me to go to bed an hour ago. I don’t see why I shouldn’t give you the same advice. I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

mabel chiltern

Lord Goring, you are always ordering me out of the room. I think it most courageous of you. Especially as I am not going to bed for hours. [ Goes over to the sofa .] You can come and sit down if you like, and talk about anything in the world, except the Royal Academy, Mrs. Cheveley, or novels in Scotch dialect. They are not improving subjects. [ Catches sight of something that is lying on the sofa half-hidden by the cushion .] What is this? Some one has dropped a diamond brooch! Quite beautiful, isn’t it? [ Shows it to him .] I wish it was mine, but Gertrude won’t let me wear anything but pearls, and I am thoroughly sick of pearls. ·50· They make one look so plain, so good and so intellectual. I wonder whom the brooch belongs to.

lord goring

I wonder who dropped it.

mabel chiltern

It is a beautiful brooch.

lord goring

It is a handsome bracelet.

mabel chiltern

It isn’t a bracelet. It’s a brooch.

lord goring

It can be used as a bracelet. [ Takes it from her, and, pulling out a green letter-case, puts the ornament carefully in it, and replaces the whole thing in his breast-pocket with the most perfect sangfroid .]

mabel chiltern

What are you doing?

lord goring

Miss Mabel, I am going to make a rather strange request to you.

·51· mabel chiltern

[ Eagerly .] Oh, pray do! I have been waiting for it all the evening.

lord goring

[ Is a little taken aback, but recovers himself .] Don’t mention to anybody that I have taken charge of this brooch. Should anyone write and claim it, let me know at once.

mabel chiltern

That is a strange request.

lord goring

Well, you see I gave this brooch to somebody once, years ago.

mabel chiltern

You did?

lord goring

Yes.

[ Lady Chiltern enters alone. The other guests have gone .]

mabel chiltern

Then I shall certainly bid you good-night. Good-night, Gertrude! [ Exit .]

·52· lady chiltern

Good-night, dear! [ To Lord Goring .] You saw whom Lady Markby brought here to-night.

lord goring

Yes. It was an unpleasant surprise. What did she come here for?

lady chiltern

Apparently to try and lure Robert to uphold some fraudulent scheme in which she is interested. The Argentine Canal, in fact.

lord goring

She has mistaken her man, hasn’t she?

lady chiltern

She is incapable of understanding an upright nature like my husband’s!

lord goring

Yes. I should fancy she came to grief if she tried to get Robert into her toils. It is extraordinary what astounding mistakes clever women make.

lady chiltern

I don’t call women of that kind clever. I call them stupid!

·53· lord goring

Same thing often. Good-night, Lady Chiltern!

lady chiltern

Good-night!

[ Enter Sir Robert Chiltern .]

sir robert chiltern

My dear Arthur, you are not going? Do stop a little!

lord goring

Afraid I can’t, thanks. I have promised to look in at the Hartlocks. I believe they have got a mauve Hungarian band that plays mauve Hungarian music. See you soon. Good-bye! [ Exit ]

sir robert chiltern

How beautiful you look to-night, Gertrude!

lady chiltern

Robert, it is not true, is it? You are not going to lend your support to this Argentine speculation? You couldn’t!

sir robert chiltern

[ Starting .] Who told you I intended to do so?

·54· lady chiltern

That woman who has just gone out, Mrs. Cheveley, as she calls herself now. She seemed to taunt me with it. Robert, I know this woman. You don’t. We were at school together. She was untruthful, dishonest, an evil influence on everyone whose trust or friendship she could win. I hated, I despised her. She stole things, she was a thief. She was sent away for being a thief. Why do you let her influence you?

sir robert chiltern

Gertrude, what you tell me may be true, but it happened many years ago. It is best forgotten! Mrs. Cheveley may have changed since then. No one should be entirely judged by their past.