sir robert chiltern
No; I walked from the club.
lord goring
Sir Robert will take my cab, Phipps.
phipps
Yes, my lord. [Exit.]
·146· lord goring
Robert, you don’t mind my sending you away?
sir robert chiltern
Arthur, you must let me stay for five minutes. I have made up my mind what I am going to do to-night in the House. The debate on the Argentine Canal is to begin at eleven. [A chair falls in the drawing-room.] What is that?
lord goring
Nothing.
sir robert chiltern
I heard a chair fall in the next room. Some one has been listening.
lord goring
No, no; there is no one there.
sir robert chiltern
There is some one. There are lights in the room, and the door is ajar. Some one has been listening to every secret of my life. Arthur, what does this mean?
lord goring
Robert, you are excited, unnerved. I tell you there is no one in that room. Sit down, Robert.
·147· sir robert chiltern
Do you give me your word that there is no one there?
lord goring
Yes.
sir robert chiltern
Your word of honour? [Sits down.]
lord goring
Yes.
sir robert chiltern
[Rises.] Arthur, let me see for myself.
lord goring
No, no.
sir robert chiltern
If there is no one there why should I not look in that room? Arthur, you must let me go into that room and satisfy myself. Let me know that no eavesdropper has heard my life’s secret. Arthur, you don’t realize what I am going through.
lord goring
Robert, this must stop. I have told you that there is no one in that room—that is enough.
·148· sir robert chiltern
[Rushes to the door of the room.] It is not enough. I insist on going into this room. You have told me there is no one there, so what reason can you have for refusing me?
lord goring
For God’s sake, don’t! There is some one there. Some one whom you must not see.
sir robert chiltern
Ah, I thought so!
lord goring
I forbid you to enter that room.
sir robert chiltern
Stand back. My life is at stake. And I don’t care who is there. I will know who it is to whom I have told my secret and my shame. [Enters room.]
lord goring
Great Heavens! his own wife!
[Sir Robert Chiltern comes back, with a look of scorn and anger on his face.]
sir robert chiltern
What explanation have you to give me for the presence of that woman here?
·149· lord goring
Robert, I swear to you on my honour that that lady is stainless and guiltless of all offence towards you.
sir robert chiltern
She is a vile, an infamous thing!
lord goring
Don’t say that, Robert! It was for your sake she came here. It was to try and save you she came here. She loves you and no one else.
sir robert chiltern
You are mad. What have I to do with her intrigues with you? Let her remain your mistress! You are well suited to each other. She, corrupt and shameful—you, false as a friend, treacherous as an enemy even——
lord goring
It is not true, Robert. Before heaven, it is not true. In her presence and in yours I will explain all.
sir robert chiltern
Let me pass, sir. You have lied enough upon your word of honour.
[Sir Robert Chiltern goes out. Lord Goring rushes to the door of the drawing-room, when Mrs. Cheveley comes out, looking radiant and much amused.]
·150· mrs. cheveley
[With a mock curtsey.] Good evening, Lord Goring!
lord goring
Mrs. Cheveley! Great Heavens! … May I ask what you were doing in my drawing-room?
mrs. cheveley
Merely listening. I have a perfect passion for listening through keyholes. One always hears such wonderful things through them.
lord goring
Doesn’t that sound rather like tempting Providence?
mrs. cheveley
Oh! surely Providence can resist temptation by this time. [Makes a sign to him to take her cloak off, which he does.]
lord goring
I am glad you have called. I am going to give you some good advice.
mrs. cheveley
Oh! pray don’t. One should never give a woman anything that she can’t wear in the evening.
·151· lord goring
I see you are quite as wilful as you used to be.
mrs. cheveley
Far
