Knowledge house - Oscar Wilde - The Complete Works

[ Mrs. Arbuthnot watches Lord Illingworth the whole time. He has passed across the room without noticing her, and approaches Mrs. Allonby, who with Lady Stutfield is standing by the door looking on to the terrace .]

·70· lord illingworth

How is the most charming woman in the world?

mrs. allonby

[ Taking Lady Stutfield by the hand .] We are both quite well, thank you, Lord Illingworth. But what a short time you have been in the dining-room! It seems as if we had only just left.

lord illingworth

I was bored to death. Never opened my lips the whole time. Absolutely longing to come in to you.

mrs. allonby

You should have. The American girl has been giving us a lecture.

lord illingworth

Really? All Americans lecture, I believe. I suppose it is something in their climate. What did she lecture about?

mrs. allonby

Oh, Puritanism, of course.

lord illingworth

I am going to convert her, am I not? How long do you give me?

·71· mrs. allonby

A week.

lord illingworth

A week is more than enough.

[ Enter Gerald and Lord Alfred .]

gerald

[ Going to Mrs. Arbuthnot .] Dear mother!

mrs. arbuthnot

Gerald, I don’t feel at all well. See me home, Gerald. I shouldn’t have come.

gerald

I am so sorry, mother. Certainly. But you must know Lord Illingworth first. [ Goes across room .]

mrs. arbuthnot

Not to-night, Gerald.

gerald

Lord Illingworth, I want you so much to know my mother.

lord illingworth

With the greatest pleasure. [ To Mrs. Allonby .] I’ll be back in a moment. People’s mothers always bore me to death. All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy.

·72· mrs. allonby

No man does. That is his.

lord illingworth

What a delightful mood you are in to-night! [ Turns round and goes across with Gerald to Mrs. Arbuthnot. When he sees her, he starts back in wonder. Then slowly his eyes turn towards Gerald .]

gerald

Mother, this is Lord Illingworth, who has offered to take me as his private secretary. [ Mrs. Arbuthnot bows coldly .] It is a wonderful opening for me, isn’t it? I hope he won’t be disappointed in me, that is all. You’ll thank Lord Illingworth, mother, won’t you?

mrs. arbuthnot

Lord Illingworth is very good, I am sure, to interest himself in you for the moment.

lord illingworth

[ Putting his hand on Gerald’s shoulder .] Oh, Gerald and I are great friends already, Mrs…. Arbuthnot.

mrs. arbuthnot

There can be nothing in common between you and my son, Lord Illingworth.

gerald

Dear mother, how can you say so? Of course, ·73· Lord Illingworth is awfully clever and that sort of thing. There is nothing Lord Illingworth doesn’t know.

lord illingworth

My dear boy!

gerald

He knows more about life than any one I have ever met. I feel an awful duffer when I am with you, Lord Illingworth. Of course, I have had so few advantages. I have not been to Eton or Oxford like other chaps. But Lord Illingworth doesn’t seem to mind that. He has been awfully good to me, mother.

mrs. arbuthnot

Lord Illingworth may change his mind. He may not really want you as his secretary.

gerald

Mother!

mrs. arbuthnot

You must remember, as you said yourself, you have had so few advantages.

mrs. allonby

Lord Illingworth, I want to speak to you for a moment. Do come over.

·74· lord illingworth

Will you excuse me, Mrs. Arbuthnot? Now, don’t let your charming mother make any more difficulties, Gerald. The thing is quite settled, isn’t it?

gerald

I hope so. [ Lord Illingworth goes across to Mrs. Allonby .]

mrs. allonby

I thought you were never going to leave the lady in black velvet.

lord illingworth

She is excessively handsome. [ Looks at Mrs. Arbuthnot .]

lady hunstanton

Caroline, shall we all make a move to the music-room? Miss Worsley is going to play. You’ll come too, dear Mrs. Arbuthnot, won’t you? You don’t know what a treat is in store for you. [ To Doctor Daubeny .] I must really take Miss Worsley down some afternoon to the rectory. I should so much like dear Mrs. Daubeny to hear her on the violin. Ah, I forgot. Dear Mrs. Daubeny’s hearing is a little defective, is it not?

the archdeacon

Her deafness is a great privation to her. She ·75· can’t even hear my sermons now. She reads them at home. But she has many resources in herself, many resources.

lady hunstanton

She reads a good deal, I suppose?

the archdeacon

Just the very largest print. The eyesight is rapidly going. But she’s never morbid, never morbid.

gerald

[ To Lord Illingworth .] Do speak to my mother, Lord Illingworth, before you go into the music-room. She seems to think, somehow, you don’t mean what you said to me.

mrs. allonby

Aren’t you coming?

lord illingworth

In a few moments. Lady Hunstanton, if Mrs. Arbuthnot would allow me, I would like to say a few words to her, and we will join you later on.

lady hunstanton

Ah, of course. You will have a great deal to say to her, and she will have a great deal to thank you for. It is not every son who gets such an ·76· offer, Mrs. Arbuthnot. But I know you appreciate that, dear.

lady caroline

John!

lady hunstanton

Now, don’t keep Mrs. Arbuthnot too long, Lord Illingworth. We can’t spare her.

[ Exit following the other guests. Sound of violin heard from music-room .]

lord illingworth

So that is our son, Rachel! Well, I am very proud of him. He is a Harford, every inch of him. By the way, why Arbuthnot, Rachel?

mrs. arbuthnot

One name is as good as another, when one has no right to any name.

lord illingworth

I suppose so—But why Gerald?

mrs. arbuthnot

After a man whose heart I broke—after my father.

lord illingworth

Well, Rachel, what is over is over. All I have ·77· got to say now is that I am very, very much pleased with our boy. The world will know him merely as my private secretary, but to me he will be something very near, and very dear. It is a curious thing, Rachel; my life seemed to be quite complete. It was not so. It lacked something, it lacked a son. I have found my son now, I am glad I have found him.

mrs. arbuthnot

You have no right to claim him, or the smallest part of him. The boy is entirely mine, and shall remain mine.

lord illingworth

My dear Rachel, you have had him to yourself for over twenty years. Why not let me have him for a little now? He is quite as much mine as yours.

mrs. arbuthnot

Are you talking of the child you abandoned? Of the child who, as far as you are concerned, might have died of hunger and of want?

lord illingworth

You forget, Rachel, it was you who left me. It was not I who left you.

mrs. arbuthnot

I left you because you refused to give the child ·78· a name. Before my son was born, I implored you to marry me.

lord illingworth

I had no expectations then. And besides, Rachel, I wasn’t much older than you were. I was only twenty-two. I was twenty-one, I believe, when the whole thing began in your father’s garden.

mrs. arbuthnot

When a man is old enough to do wrong he should be old enough to do right also.

lord illingworth

My dear Rachel, intellectual generalities are always interesting, but generalities in morals mean absolutely nothing. As for saying I left our child to starve, that, of course, is untrue and silly. My mother offered you six hundred a year. But you wouldn’t take anything. You simply disappeared, and carried the child away with you.