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

mabel chiltern

Really? I must tell my dressmaker. It will be such a surprise to her. Good-bye, Lady Markby!

lady markby

Going already?

mabel chiltern

I am so sorry but I am obliged to. I am just ·99· off to rehearsal. I have got to stand on my head in some tableaux.

lady markby

On your head, child? Oh! I hope not. I believe it is most unhealthy. [ Takes a seat on the sofa next Lady Chiltern .]

mabel chiltern

But it is for an excellent charity: in aid of the Undeserving, the only people I am really interested in. I am the secretary, and Tommy Trafford is treasurer.

mrs. cheveley

And what is Lord Goring?

mabel chiltern

Oh! Lord Goring is president.

mrs. cheveley

The post should suit him admirably, unless he has deteriorated since I knew him first.

lady markby

[ Reflecting ]. [ E:[ Reflecting .]] You are remarkably modern, Mabel. A little too modern, perhaps. Nothing is so dangerous as being too modern. One is apt to grow ·100· old-fashioned quite suddenly. I have known many instances of it.

mabel chiltern

What a dreadful prospect!

lady markby

Ah! my dear, you need not be nervous. You will always be as pretty as possible. That is the best fashion there is, and the only fashion that England succeeds in setting.

mabel chiltern

[ With a curtsey .] Thank you so much, Lady Markby, for England … and myself. [ Goes out .]

lady markby

[ Turning to Lady Chiltern .] Dear Gertrude, we just called to know if Mrs. Cheveley’s diamond brooch has been found.

lady chiltern

Here?

mrs. cheveley

Yes. I missed it when I got back to Claridge’s, and I thought I might possibly have dropped it here.

·101· lady chiltern

I have heard nothing about it. But I will send for the butler and ask. [ Touches the bell .]

mrs. cheveley

Oh, pray don’t trouble, Lady Chiltern. I daresay I lost it at the Opera, before we came on here.

lady markby

Ah yes, I suppose it must have been at the Opera. The fact is, we all scramble and jostle so much nowadays that I wonder we have anything at all left on us at the end of an evening. I know myself that, when I am coming back from the Drawing Room, I always feel as if I hadn’t a shred on me, except a small shred of decent reputation, just enough to prevent the lower classes making painful observations through the windows of the carriage. The fact is that our Society is terribly overpopulated. Really, some one should arrange a proper scheme of assisted emigration. It would do a great deal of good.

mrs. cheveley

I quite agree with you, Lady Markby. It is nearly six years since I have been in London for the season, and I must say Society has become dreadfully mixed. One sees the oddest people everywhere.

·102· lady markby

That is quite true, dear. But one needn’t know them. I’m sure I don’t know half the people who come to my house. Indeed, from all I hear, I shouldn’t like to.

[ Enter Mason .]

lady chiltern

What sort of a brooch was it that you lost, Mrs. Cheveley?

mrs. cheveley

A diamond snake-brooch with a ruby, a rather large ruby.

lady markby

I thought you said there was a sapphire on the head, dear?

mrs. cheveley

[ Smiling .] No, Lady Markby—a ruby.

lady markby

[ Nodding her head .] And very becoming, I am quite sure.

lady chiltern

Has a ruby and diamond brooch been found in any of the rooms this morning, Mason?

·103· mason

No, my lady.

mrs. cheveley

It really is of no consequence, Lady Chiltern. I am so sorry to have put you to any inconvenience.

lady chiltern

[ Coldly .] Oh, it has been no inconvenience. That will do, Mason. You can bring tea.

[ Exit Mason .]

lady markby

Well, I must say it is most annoying to lose anything. I remember once at Bath, years ago, losing in the Pump Room an exceedingly handsome cameo bracelet that Sir John had given me. I don’t think he has ever given me anything since, I am sorry to say. He has sadly degenerated. Really, this horrid House of Commons quite ruins our husbands for us. I think the Lower House by far the greatest blow to a happy married life that there has been since that terrible thing called the Higher Education of Women was invented.

lady chiltern

Ah! it is heresy to say that in this house, Lady Markby. Robert is a great champion of the Higher Education of Women, and so, I am afraid, am I.

·104· mrs. cheveley

The higher education of men is what I should like to see. Men need it so sadly.

lady markby

They do, dear. But I am afraid such a scheme would be quite unpractical. I don’t think man has much capacity for development. He has got as far as he can, and that is not far, is it? With regard to women, well, dear Gertrude, you belong to the younger generation, and I am sure it is all right if you approve of it. In my time, of course, we were taught not to understand anything. That was the old system, and wonderfully interesting it was. I assure you that the amount of things I and my poor dear sister were taught not to understand was quite extraordinary. But modern women understand everything, I am told.

mrs. cheveley

Except their husbands. That is the one thing the modern woman never understands.

lady markby

And a very good thing too, dear, I daresay. It might break up many a happy home if they did. Not yours, I need hardly say, Gertrude. You have married a pattern husband. I wish I could say as much for myself. But since Sir John has taken to attending the debates regularly, which he never used ·105· to do in the good old days, his language has become quite impossible. He always seems to think that he is addressing the House, and consequently whenever he discusses the state of the agricultural labourer, or the Welsh Church, or something quite improper of that kind, I am obliged to send all the servants out of the room. It is not pleasant to see one’s own butler, who has been with one for twenty-three years, actually blushing at the sideboard, and the footmen making contortions in corners like persons in circuses. I assure you my life will be quite ruined unless they send John at once to the Upper House. He won’t take any interest in politics then, will he? The House of Lords is so sensible. An assembly of gentlemen. But in his present state, Sir John is really a great trial. Why, this morning before breakfast was half over, he stood up on the hearthrug, put his hands in his pockets, and appealed to the country at the top of his voice. I left the table as soon as I had my second cup of tea, I need hardly say. But his violent language could be heard all over the house! I trust, Gertrude, that Sir Robert is not like that?

lady chiltern

But I am very much interested in politics, Lady Markby. I love to hear Robert talk about them.

lady markby

Well, I hope he is not as devoted to Blue Books as Sir John is. I don’t think they can be quite improving reading for anyone.

·106· mrs. cheveley

[ Languidly .] I have never read a Blue Book. I prefer books … in yellow covers.

lady markby

[ Genially unconscious .] Yellow is a gayer colour, is it not? I used to wear yellow a good deal in my early days, and would do so now if Sir John was not so painfully personal in his observations, and a man on the question of dress is always ridiculous, is he not?

mrs. cheveley

Oh, no! I think men are the only authorities on dress.

lady markby

Really? One wouldn’t say so from the sort of hats they wear, would one?

[ The butler enters, followed by the footman. Tea is set on a small table close to Lady Chiltern .]