and retire from public life? Never heard such damned nonsense in the whole course of my existence. I beg your pardon, Lady Chiltern. Chiltern, I beg your pardon. [To Lord Goring.] Don’t grin like that, sir.
lord goring
No, father.
lord caversham
Lady Chiltern, you are a sensible woman, the most sensible woman in London, the most sensible woman I know. Will you kindly prevent your husband from making such a … from talking such … Will you kindly do that, Lady Chiltern?
·200· lady chiltern
I think my husband is right in his determination, Lord Caversham. I approve of it.
lord caversham
You approve of it? Good Heavens!
lady chiltern
[Taking her husband’s hand.] I admire him for it. I admire him immensely for it. I have never admired him so much before. He is finer than even I thought him. [To Sir Robert Chiltern.] You will go and write your letter to the Prime Minister now, won’t you? Don’t hesitate about it, Robert.
sir robert chiltern
[With a touch of bitterness.] I suppose I had better write it at once. Such offers are not repeated. I will ask you to excuse me for a moment, Lord Caversham.
lady chiltern
I may come with you, Robert, may I not?
sir robert chiltern
Yes, Gertrude.
[Lady Chiltern goes out with him.]
·201· lord caversham
What is the matter with this family? Something wrong here, eh? [Tapping his forehead.] Idiocy? Hereditary, I suppose. Both of them, too. Wife as well as husband. Very sad. Very sad indeed! And they are not an old family. Can’t understand it.
lord goring
It is not idiocy, father, I assure you.
lord caversham
What is it then, sir?
lord goring
[After some hesitation.] Well, it is what is called nowadays a high moral tone, father. That is all.
lord caversham
Hate these new-fangled names. Same thing as we used to call idiocy fifty years ago. Shan’t stay in this house any longer.
lord goring
[Taking his arm.] Oh! just go in here for a moment, father. Third palm tree to the left, the usual palm tree.
lord caversham
What, sir?
·202· lord goring
I beg your pardon, father, I forgot. The conservatory, father, the conservatory—there is some one there I want you to talk to.
lord caversham
What about, sir?
lord goring
About me, father.
lord caversham
[Grimly.] Not a subject on which much eloquence is possible.
lord goring
No, father; but the lady is like me. She doesn’t care much for eloquence in others. She thinks it a little loud.
[Lord Caversham goes into the conservatory. Lady Chiltern enters.]
lord goring
Lady Chiltern, why are you playing Mrs. Cheveley’s cards?
lady chiltern
[Startled.] I don’t understand you.
·203· lord goring
Mrs. Cheveley made an attempt to ruin your husband. Either to drive him from public life, or to make him adopt a dishonourable position. From the latter tragedy you saved him. The former you are now thrusting on him. Why should you do him the wrong Mrs. Cheveley tried to do and failed?
lady chiltern
Lord Goring?
lord goring
[Pulling himself together for a great effort, and showing the philosopher that underlies the dandy.] Lady Chiltern, allow me. You wrote me a letter last night in which you said you trusted me and wanted my help. Now is the moment when you really want my help, now is the time when you have got to trust me, to trust in my counsel and judgment. You love Robert. Do you want to kill his love for you? What sort of existence will he have if you rob him of the fruits of his ambition, if you take him from the splendour of a great political career, if you close the doors of public life against him, if you condemn him to sterile failure, he who was made for triumph and success? Women are not meant to judge us, but to forgive us when we need forgiveness. Pardon, not punishment, is their mission. Why should you scourge him with rods for a sin done in his youth, before he knew you, before he knew himself? A man’s life is of more value than ·204· a woman’s. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. A woman’s life revolves in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man’s life progresses. Don’t make any terrible mistake, Lady Chiltern. A woman who can keep a man’s love, and love him in return, has done all the world wants of women, or should want of them.
lady chiltern
[Troubled and hesitating.] But it is my husband himself who wishes to retire from public life. He feels it is his duty. It was he who first said so.
lord goring
Rather than lose your love, Robert would do anything, wreck his whole career, as he is on the brink of doing now. He is making for you a terrible sacrifice. Take my advice, Lady Chiltern, and do not accept a sacrifice so great. If you do, you will live to repent it bitterly. We men and women are not made to accept such sacrifices from each other. We are not worthy of them. Besides, Robert has been punished enough.
lady chiltern
We have both been punished. I set him up too high.
lord goring
[With deep feeling in his voice.] Do not for that reason set him down now too low. If he has fallen ·205· from his altar, do not thrust him into the mire. Failure to Robert would be the very mire of shame. Power is his passion. He would lose everything, even his power to feel love. Your husband’s life is at this moment in your hands, your husband’s love is in your hands. Don’t mar both for him.
[Enter Sir Robert Chiltern.]
sir
