Knowledge house - Oscar Wilde - The Complete Works

·38· mrs. cheveley

[ Leaning back on the sofa and looking at him .] How very disappointing! And I have come all the way from Vienna in order that you should thoroughly understand me.

sir robert chiltern

I fear I don’t.

mrs. cheveley

[ In her most nonchalant manner .] My dear Sir Robert, you are a man of the world, and you have your price, I suppose. Everybody has nowadays. The drawback is that most people are so dreadfully expensive. I know I am. I hope you will be more reasonable in your terms.

sir robert chiltern

[ Rises indignantly .] If you will allow me, I will call your carriage for you. You have lived so long abroad, Mrs. Cheveley, that you seem to be unable to realize that you are talking to an English gentleman.

mrs. cheveley

[ Detains him by touching his arm with her fan, and keeping it there while she is talking .] I realize that I am talking to a man who laid the foundation of his fortune by selling to a Stock Exchange speculator a Cabinet secret.

·39· sir robert chiltern

[ Biting his lip .] What do you mean?

mrs. cheveley

[ Rising and facing him .] I mean that I know the real origin of your wealth and your career, and I have got your letter, too.

sir robert chiltern

What letter?

mrs. cheveley

[ Contemptuously .] The letter you wrote to Baron Arnheim, when you were Lord Radley’s secretary, telling the Baron to buy Suez Canal shares—a letter written three days before the Government announced its own purchase.

sir robert chiltern

[ Hoarsely .] It is not true.

mrs. cheveley

You thought that letter had been destroyed. How foolish of you! It is in my possession.

sir robert chiltern

The affair to which you allude was no more than a speculation. The House of Commons had not yet passed the bill; it might have been rejected.

·40· mrs. cheveley

It was a swindle, Sir Robert. Let us call things by their proper names. It makes everything simpler. And now I am going to sell you that letter, and the price I ask for it is your public support of the Argentine scheme. You made your own fortune out of one canal. You must help me and my friends to make our fortunes out of another!

sir robert chiltern

It is infamous, what you propose—infamous!

mrs. cheveley

Oh, no! This is the game of life as we all have to play it, Sir Robert, sooner or later!

sir robert chiltern

I cannot do what you ask me.

mrs. cheveley

You mean you cannot help doing it. You know you are standing on the edge of a precipice. And it is not for you to make terms. It is for you to accept them. Supposing you refuse——

sir robert chiltern

What then?

·41· mrs. cheveley

My dear Sir Robert, what then? You are ruined [ E:ruined,] that is all! Remember to what a point your Puritanism in England has brought you. In old days nobody pretended to be a bit better than his neighbours. In fact, to be a bit better than one’s neighbour was considered excessively vulgar and middle-class. Nowadays, with our modern mania for morality, everyone has to pose as a paragon of purity, incorruptibility, and all the other seven deadly virtues—and what is the result? You all go over like ninepins—one after the other. Not a year passes in England without somebody disappearing. Scandals used to lend charm, or at least interest, to a man—now they crush him. And yours is a very nasty scandal. You couldn’t survive it. If it were known that as a young man, secretary to a great and important minister, you sold a Cabinet secret for a large sum of money, and that that was the origin of your wealth and career, you would be hounded out of public life, you would disappear completely. And after all, Sir Robert, why should you sacrifice your entire future rather than deal diplomatically with your enemy? For the moment I am your enemy. I admit it! And I am much stronger than you are. The big battalions are on my side. You have a splendid position, but it is your splendid position that makes you so vulnerable. You can’t defend it! And I am in attack. Of course I have not talked morality to you. You must admit in fairness that I have spared you that. Years ago you did a clever, unscrupulous thing; it ·42· turned out a great success. You owe to it your fortune and position. And now you have got to pay for it. Sooner or later we all have to pay for what we do. You have to pay now. Before I leave you to-night, you have got to promise me to suppress your report, and to speak in the House in favour of this scheme.

sir robert chiltern

What you ask is impossible.

mrs. cheveley

You must make it possible. You are going to make it possible. Sir Robert, you know what your English newspapers are like. Suppose that when I leave this house I drive down to some newspaper office, and give them this scandal and the proofs of it! Think of their loathsome joy, of the delight they would have in dragging you down, of the mud and mire they would plunge you in. Think of the hypocrite with his greasy smile penning his leading article, and arranging the foulness of the public placard.

sir robert chiltern

Stop! You want me to withdraw the report and to make a short speech stating that I believe there are possibilities in the scheme?

mrs. cheveley

[ Sitting down on the sofa .] Those are my terms.

·43· sir robert chiltern

[ In a low voice .] I will give you any sum of money you want.

mrs. cheveley

Even you are not rich enough, Sir Robert, to buy back your past. No man is.

sir robert chiltern

I will not do what you ask me. I will not.

mrs. cheveley

You have to. If you don’t … [ Rises from the sofa .]

sir robert chiltern

[ Bewildered and unnerved .] Wait a moment! What did you propose? You said that you would give me back my letter, didn’t you?

mrs. cheveley

Yes. That is agreed. I will be in the Ladies’ Gallery to-morrow night at half-past eleven. If by that time—and you will have had heaps of opportunity—you have made an announcement to the House in the terms I wish, I shall hand you back your letter with the prettiest thanks, and the best, or at any rate the most suitable, compliment I can think of. I intend to play quite fairly with you. ·44· One should always play fairly … when one has the winning cards. The Baron taught me that … amongst other things.

sir robert chiltern

You must let me have time to consider your proposal.

mrs. cheveley

No; you must settle now!

sir robert chiltern

Give me a week—three days!

mrs. cheveley

Impossible! I have got to telegraph to Vienna to-night.

sir robert chiltern

My God! what brought you into my life?

mrs. cheveley

Circumstances. [ Moves towards the door .]

sir robert chiltern

Don’t go. I consent. The report shall be withdrawn. I will arrange for a question to be put to me on the subject.

·45· mrs. cheveley

Thank you. I knew we should come to an amicable agreement. I understood your nature from the first. I analyzed you, though you did not adore me. And now you can get my carriage for me, Sir Robert. I see the people coming up from supper, and Englishmen always get romantic after a meal, and that bores me dreadfully.

[ Exit Sir Robert Chiltern .]

[ Enter Guests, Lady Chiltern, Lady Markby, Lord Caversham, Lady Basildon, Mrs. Marchmont, Vicomte de Nanjac, Mr. Montford .]

lady markby

Well, dear Mrs. Cheveley, I hope you have enjoyed yourself. Sir Robert is very entertaining, is he not?

mrs. cheveley

Most entertaining! I have enjoyed my talk with him immensely.

lady markby