told you, far more. And if I had a position, if I had prospects, I could—I could ask her to—Don’t you understand now, mother, what it means to me to be Lord Illingworth’s secretary? To start like that is to find a career ready for one—before one—waiting for one. If I were Lord Illingworth’s secretary I could ask Hester to be my wife. As a wretched bank clerk with a hundred a year it would be an impertinence.
mrs. arbuthnot
I fear you need have no hopes of Miss Worsley. I know her views on life. She has just told them to me. [A pause.]
gerald
Then I have my ambition left, at any rate. ·113· That is something—I am glad I have that! You have always tried to crush my ambition, mother—haven’t you? You have told me that the world is a wicked place, that success is not worth having, that society is shallow, and all that sort of thing—well, I don’t believe it, mother. I think the world must be delightful. I think society must be exquisite. I think success is a thing worth having. You have been wrong in all that you taught me, mother, quite wrong. Lord Illingworth is a successful man. He is a fashionable man. He is a man who lives in the world and for it. Well, I would give anything to be just like Lord Illingworth.
mrs. arbuthnot
I would sooner see you dead.
gerald
Mother, what is your objection to Lord Illingworth? Tell me—tell me right out. What is it?
mrs. arbuthnot
He is a bad man.
gerald
In what way bad? I don’t understand what you mean.
mrs. arbuthnot
I will tell you.
·114· gerald
I suppose you think him bad, because he doesn’t believe the same things as you do. Well, men are different from women, mother. It is natural that they should have different views.
mrs. arbuthnot
It is not what Lord Illingworth believes, or what he does not believe, that makes him bad. It is what he is.
gerald
Mother, is it something you know of him? Something you actually know?
mrs. arbuthnot
It is something I know.
gerald
Something you are quite sure of?
mrs. arbuthnot
Quite sure of.
gerald
How long have you known it?
mrs. arbuthnot
For twenty years.
gerald
Is it fair to go back twenty years in any ·115· man’s career? And what have you or I to do with Lord Illingworth’s early life? What business is it of ours?
mrs. arbuthnot
What this man has been, he is now, and will be always.
gerald
Mother, tell me what Lord Illingworth did? If he did anything shameful, I will not go away with him. Surely you know me well enough for that?
mrs. arbuthnot
Gerald, come near to me. Quite close to me, as you used to do when you were a little boy, when you were mother’s own boy. [Gerald sits down beside his mother. She runs her fingers through his hair, and strokes his hands.] Gerald, there was a girl once, she was very young, she was little over eighteen at the time. George Harford—that was Lord Illingworth’s name then—George Harford met her. She knew nothing about life. He—knew everything. He made this girl love him. He made her love him so much that she left her father’s house with him one morning. She loved him so much, and he had promised to marry her! He had solemnly promised to marry her, and she had believed him. She was very young, and—and ignorant of what life really is. But he put the marriage off from week to week, and month to month.—She trusted in ·116· him all the while. She loved him.—Before her child was born—for she had a child—she implored him for the child’s sake to marry her, that the child might have a name, that her sin might not be visited on the child, who was innocent. He refused. After the child was born she left him, taking the child away, and her life was ruined, and her soul ruined, and all that was sweet, and good, and pure in her ruined also. She suffered terribly—she suffers now. She will always suffer. For her there is no joy, no peace, no atonement. She is a woman who drags a chain like a guilty thing. She is a woman who wears a mask, like a thing that is a leper. The fire cannot purify her. The waters cannot quench her anguish. Nothing can heal her! no anodyne can give her sleep! no poppies forgetfulness! She is lost! She is a lost soul!—That is why I call Lord Illingworth a bad man. That is why I don’t want my boy to be with him.
gerald
My dear mother, it all sounds very tragic, of course. But I dare say the girl was just as much to blame as Lord Illingworth was.—After all, would a really nice girl, a girl with any nice feelings at all, go away from her home with a man to whom she was not married, and live with him as his wife? No nice girl would.
mrs. arbuthnot
[After a pause.] Gerald, I withdraw all my ·117· objections. You are at liberty to go away with Lord Illingworth, when and where you choose.
gerald
Dear mother, I knew you wouldn’t stand in my way. You are the best woman God ever made. And, as for Lord Illingworth, I don’t believe he is capable of anything infamous or base. I can’t believe it of him—I can’t.
hester
[Outside.] Let me go! Let me go!
[Enter Hester in terror, and rushes over to Gerald and flings herself in his arms.]
hester
Oh! save me—save me from him!
gerald
From whom?
hester
He has insulted me! Horribly insulted me! Save me!
gerald
Who? Who has dared——?
[Lord Illingworth enters at back of stage. Hester breaks from Gerald’s arms and points to him.]
·118· gerald [He is quite beside himself with rage and indignation.]
Lord Illingworth, you have insulted the purest thing on God’s earth, a thing as pure as my own mother. You have insulted the woman I love most in the world with my own mother. As there
