windermere
[Leaning back on the sofa.] You look on me as being behind the age.—Well, I am! I should be sorry to be on the same level as an age like this.
lord darlington
You think the age very bad?
lady windermere
Yes. Now-a-days people seem to look on life as a speculation. It is not a speculation. It is a sacrament. Its ideal is Love. Its purification is sacrifice.
lord darlington
[Smiling.] Oh, anything is better than being sacrificed!
·8· lady windermere
[Leaning forward.] Don’t say that.
lord darlington
I do say it. I feel it—I know it.
[Enter Parker C.
parker
The men want to know if they are to put the carpets on the terrace for to-night, my lady?
lady windermere
You don’t think it will rain, Lord Darlington, do you?
lord darlington
I won’t hear of its raining on your birthday!
lady windermere
Tell them to do it at once, Parker.
[Exit Parker C.
lord darlington
[Still seated.] Do you think then—of course I am only putting an imaginary instance—do you think that in the case of a young married couple, say about two years married, if the husband suddenly becomes the intimate friend of a woman of—well, more than doubtful character, is always calling upon her, lunching with her, and probably ·9· paying her bills—do you think that the wife should not console herself?
lady windermere
[Frowning.] Console herself?
lord darlington
Yes, I think she should—I think she has the right.
lady windermere
Because the husband is vile—should the wife be vile also?
lord darlington
Vileness is a terrible word, Lady Windermere.
lady windermere
It is a terrible thing, Lord Darlington.
lord darlington
Do you know I am afraid that good people do a great deal of harm in this world. Certainly the greatest harm they do is that they make badness of such extraordinary importance. It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious. I take the side of the charming, and you, Lady Windermere, can’t help belonging to them.
·10· lady windermere
Now, Lord Darlington. [Rising and crossing R., front of him.] Don’t stir, I am merely going to finish my flowers. [Goes to table R.C.]
lord darlington
[Rising and moving chair.] And I must say I think you are very hard on modern life, Lady Windermere. Of course there is much against it, I admit. Most women, for instance, now-a-days, are rather mercenary.
lady windermere
Don’t talk about such people.
lord darlington
Well then, setting mercenary people aside, who, of course, are dreadful, do you think seriously that women who have committed what the world calls a fault should never be forgiven?
lady windermere
[Standing at table.] I think they should never be forgiven.
lord darlington
And men? Do you think that there should be the same laws for men as there are for women?
lady windermere
Certainly!
·11· lord darlington
I think life too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules.
lady windermere
If we had ‘these hard and fast rules,’ we should find life much more simple.
lord darlington
You allow of no exceptions?
lady windermere
None!
lord darlington
Ah, what a fascinating Puritan you are, Lady Windermere!
lady windermere
The adjective was unnecessary, Lord Darlington.
lord darlington
I couldn’t help it. I can resist everything except temptation.
lady windermere
You have the modern affectation of weakness.
lord darlington
[Looking at her.] It’s only an affectation, Lady Windermere.
[Enter Parker C.
·12· parker
The Duchess of Berwick and Lady Agatha Carlisle.
[Enter the Duchess of Berwick and Lady Agatha Carlisle C.
[Exit Parker C.
duchess of berwick
[Coming down C., and shaking hands.] Dear Margaret, I am so pleased to see you. You remember Agatha, don’t you? [Crossing L. C.] How do you do, Lord Darlington? I won’t let you know my daughter, you are far too wicked.
lord darlington
Don’t say that, Duchess. As a wicked man I am a complete failure. Why, there are lots of people who say I have never really done anything wrong in the whole course of my life. Of course they only say it behind my back.
duchess of berwick
Isn’t
