I thought you were quite happy here with me, Gerald. I didn’t know you were so anxious to leave me.
gerald
Mother, how can you talk like that? Of course I have been quite happy with you. But a man can’t stay always with his mother. No chap does. I want to make myself a position, to do something. I thought you would have been proud to see me Lord Illingworth’s secretary.
mrs. arbuthnot
I do not think you would be suitable as a private secretary to Lord Illingworth. You have no qualifications.
lord illingworth
I don’t wish to seem to interfere for a moment, Mrs. Arbuthnot, but as far as your last objection is concerned, I surely am the best judge. And I can only tell you that your son has all the qualifications I had hoped for. He has more, in fact, than I had even thought of. Far more. [Mrs. Arbuthnot remains silent.] Have you any other reason, Mrs. Arbuthnot, why you don’t wish your son to accept this post?
·84· gerald
Have you, mother? Do answer.
lord illingworth
If you have, Mrs. Arbuthnot, pray, pray say it. We are quite by ourselves here. Whatever it is, I need not say I will not repeat it.
gerald
Mother?
lord illingworth
If you would like to be alone with your son, I will leave you. You may have some other reason you don’t wish me to hear.
mrs. arbuthnot
I have no other reason.
lord illingworth
Then, my dear boy, we may look on the thing as settled. Come, you and I will smoke a cigarette on the terrace together. And Mrs. Arbuthnot, pray let me tell you, that I think you have acted very, very wisely.
[Exit with Gerald. Mrs. Arbuthnot is left alone. She stands immobile, with a look of unutterable sorrow on her face.]
Act-drop.
·85· Third Act.
·87· SCENE—The Picture Gallery at Hunstanton. Door at back leading on to terrace.
[Lord Illingworth and Gerald, R.C. Lord Illingworth lolling on a sofa. Gerald in a chair.]
lord illingworth
Thoroughly sensible woman, your mother, Gerald. I knew she would come round in the end.
gerald
My mother is awfully conscientious, Lord Illingworth, and I know she doesn’t think I am educated enough to be your secretary. She is perfectly right, too. I was fearfully idle when I was at school, and I couldn’t pass an examination now to save my life.
lord illingworth
My dear Gerald, examinations are of no value whatsoever. If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him.
·88· gerald
But I am so ignorant of the world, Lord Illingworth.
lord illingworth
Don’t be afraid, Gerald. Remember that you’ve got on your side the most wonderful thing in the world—youth! There is nothing like youth. The middle-aged are mortgaged to Life. The old are in Life’s lumber-room. But youth is the Lord of Life. Youth has a kingdom waiting for it. Every one is born a king, and most people die in exile, like most kings. To win back my youth, Gerald, there is nothing I wouldn’t do—except take exercise, get up early, or be a useful member of the community.
gerald
But you don’t call yourself old, Lord Illingworth?
lord illingworth
I am old enough to be your father, Gerald.
gerald
I don’t remember my father; he died years ago.
lord illingworth
So Lady Hunstanton told me.
gerald
It is very curious, my mother never talks to me ·89· about my father. I sometimes think she must have married beneath her.
lord illingworth
[Winces slightly.] Really? [Goes over and puts his hand on Gerald’s shoulder.] You have missed not having a father, I suppose, Gerald?
gerald
Oh, no; my mother has been so good to me. No one ever had such a mother as I have had.
lord illingworth
I am quite sure of that. Still I should imagine that most mothers don’t quite understand their sons. Don’t realise, I mean, that a son has ambitions, a desire to see life, to make himself a name. After all, Gerald, you couldn’t be expected to pass all your life in such a hole as Wrockley, could you?
gerald
Oh, no! It would be dreadful!
lord illingworth
A mother’s love is very touching, of course, but it is often curiously selfish. I mean, there is a good deal of selfishness in it.
gerald
[Slowly.] I suppose there is.
·90· lord illingworth
Your mother is a thoroughly good woman. But good women have such limited views of life, their horizon is so small, their interests are so petty, aren’t they?
gerald
They are awfully interested, certainly, in things we don’t care much about.
lord illingworth
I suppose your mother is very religious, and that sort of thing.
gerald
Oh, yes, she’s always going to church.
lord illingworth
Ah! she is not modern, and to be modern is the only thing worth being now-a-days. You want to be modern, don’t you, Gerald? You want to know life as it really is. Not to be put off with any old-fashioned theories about life. Well, what you have to do at present is simply to fit yourself for the best society. A man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world. The
