Archdeacon, when you are in your nice pulpit. But then I always know what you are going to say, so I don’t feel alarmed. [Sees Mrs. Arbuthnot.] Ah! dear Mrs. Arbuthnot, do come and join us. Come, dear. [Enter Mrs. Arbuthnot.] Gerald has been having such a long talk with Lord Illingworth; I am sure you must feel very much flattered at the pleasant way in which everything has turned out for him. Let us sit down. [They sit down.] And how is your beautiful embroidery going on?
mrs. arbuthnot
I am always at work, Lady Hunstanton.
lady hunstanton
Mrs. Daubeny embroiders a little, too, doesn’t she?
the archdeacon
She was very deft with her needle once, quite a Dorcas. But the gout has crippled her fingers a good deal. She has not touched the tambour frame for nine or ten years. But she has many other amusements. She is very much interested in her own health.
·97· lady hunstanton
Ah! that is always a nice distraction, is it not? Now, what are you talking about, Lord Illingworth? Do tell us.
lord illingworth
I was on the point of explaining to Gerald that the world has always laughed at its own tragedies, that being the only way in which it has been able to bear them. And that, consequently, whatever the world has treated seriously belongs to the comedy side of things.
lady hunstanton
Now I am quite out of my depth. I usually am when Lord Illingworth says anything. And the Humane Society is most careless. They never rescue me. I am left to sink. I have a dim idea, dear Lord Illingworth, that you are always on the side of the sinners, and I know I always try to be on the side of the saints, but that is as far as I get. And after all, it may be merely the fancy of a drowning person.
lord illingworth
The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
lady hunstanton
Ah! that quite does for me. I haven’t a word to say. You and I, dear Mrs. Arbuthnot, are ·98· behind the age. We can’t follow Lord Illingworth. Too much care was taken with our education, I am afraid. To have been well brought up is a great drawback now-a-days. It shuts one out from so much.
mrs. arbuthnot
I should be sorry to follow Lord Illingworth in any of his opinions.
lady hunstanton
You are quite right, dear.
[Gerald shrugs his shoulders and looks irritably over at his mother. Enter Lady Caroline.]
lady caroline
Jane, have you seen John anywhere?
lady hunstanton
You needn’t be anxious about him, dear. He is with Lady Stutfield; I saw them some time ago, in the Yellow Drawing-room. They seem quite happy together. You are not going, Caroline? Pray sit down.
lady caroline
I think I had better look after John.
[Exit Lady Caroline.]
lady hunstanton
It doesn’t do to pay men so much attention. And Caroline has really nothing to be anxious ·99· about. Lady Stutfield is very sympathetic. She is just as sympathetic about one thing as she is about another. A beautiful nature.
[Enter Sir John and Mrs. Allonby.]
Ah! here is Sir John! And with Mrs. Allonby too! I suppose it was Mrs. Allonby I saw him with. Sir John, Caroline has been looking everywhere for you.
mrs. allonby
We have been waiting for her in the Music-room, dear Lady Hunstanton.
lady hunstanton
Ah! the Music-room, of course. I thought it was the Yellow Drawing-room, my memory is getting so defective. [To the Archdeacon.] Mrs. Daubeny has a wonderful memory, hasn’t she?
the archdeacon
She used to be quite remarkable for her memory, but since her last attack she recalls chiefly the events of her early childhood. But she finds great pleasure in such retrospections, great pleasure.
[Enter Lady Stutfield and Mr. Kelvil.]
lady hunstanton
Ah! dear Lady Stutfield! and what has Mr. Kelvil been talking to you about?
lady stutfield
About Bimetallism, as well as I remember.
·100· lady hunstanton
Bimetallism! Is that quite a nice subject? However, I know people discuss everything very freely now-a-days. What did Sir John talk to you about, dear Mrs. Allonby?
mrs. allonby
About Patagonia.
lady hunstanton
Really? What a remote topic! But very improving, I have no doubt.
mrs. allonby
He has been most interesting on the subject of Patagonia. Savages seem to have quite the same views as cultured people on almost all subjects. They are excessively advanced.
lady hunstanton
What do they do?
mrs. allonby
Apparently everything.
lady hunstanton
Well, it is very gratifying, dear Archdeacon, is it not, to find that Human Nature is permanently one.—On the whole, the world is the same world, is it not?
lord illingworth
The world is simply divided into two classes—·101·those who believe the incredible, like the public—and those who do the improbable——
mrs. allonby
Like yourself?
lord illingworth
Yes; I am always astonishing myself. It is the only thing that makes life worth living.
lady stutfield
And what have you been doing lately that astonishes you?
lord illingworth
I have been discovering all kinds of beautiful qualities in my own nature.
