An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde (readict books txt) 📕

see why I shouldn’t give you the same advice. I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself. Mabel Chiltern Lord Goring, you are always ordering me out of the room. I think it most courageous of you. Especially as I am not going to bed for hours. Goes over to the sofa. You can come and sit down if you like, and talk about anything in the world, except the Royal Academy, Mrs. Cheveley, or novels in Scotch dialect. They are not improving subjects. Catches sight of something that is lying on the sofa half hidden by the cushion. What is this? Someone has dropped a diamond brooch! Quite beautiful, isn’t it? Shows it to him. I wish it was mine, but Gertrude won’t let me wear anything but pearls, and I am thoroughly sick of pearls. They make one look so plain, so good and so intellectual. I wonder whom the brooch belongs to. Lord Goring I wonder who dropped it. Mabel Chiltern It is a beautiful brooch. Lord Goring It is a handsome bracelet. Mabel Chiltern It isn’t a bracelet. It’s a brooch. Lord Goring It can be used as a bracelet. Takes it from her, and, pulling out a green letter-case, puts the ornament carefully in it, and replaces the whole thing in his breast-pocket with the most perfect sangfroid. Mabel Chiltern What are you doing? Lord Goring Miss Mabel, I am going to make a rather strange request to you. Mabel Chiltern Eagerly. Oh, pray do! I have been waiting for it all the evening. Lord Goring Is a little taken aback, but recovers himself. Don’t mention to anybody that I have taken charge of this brooch. Should anyone write and claim it, let me know at once. Mabel Chiltern That is a strange request. Lord Goring Well, you see I gave this brooch to somebody once, years ago. Mabel Chiltern You did? Lord Goring Yes. Lady Chiltern enters alone. The other guests have gone. Mabel Chiltern Then I shall certainly bid you good night. Good night, Gertrude! Exit. Lady Chiltern Good night, dear! To Lord Goring. You saw whom Lady Markby brought here tonight? Lord Goring Yes. It was an unpleasant surprise. What did she come here for? Lady Chiltern Apparently to try and lure Robert to uphold some fraudulent scheme in which she is interested. The Argentine Canal, in fact. Lord Goring She has mistaken her man, hasn’t she? Lady Chiltern She is incapable of understanding an upright nature like my husband’s! Lord Goring Yes. I should fancy she came to grief if she tried to get Robert into her toils. It is extraordinary what astounding mistakes clever women make. Lady Chiltern I don’t call women of that kind clever. I call them stupid! Lord Goring Same thing often. Good night, Lady Chiltern! Lady Chiltern Good night! Enter Sir Robert Chiltern. Sir Robert Chiltern My dear Arthur, you are not going? Do stop a little! Lord Goring Afraid I can’t, thanks. I have promised to look in at the Hartlocks’. I believe they have got a mauve Hungarian band that plays mauve Hungarian music. See you soon. Goodbye! Exit. Sir Robert Chiltern How beautiful you look tonight, Gertrude! Lady Chiltern Robert, it is not true, is it? You are not going to lend your support to this Argentine speculation? You couldn’t! Sir Robert Chiltern Starting. Who told you I intended to do so? Lady Chiltern That woman who has just gone out, Mrs. Cheveley, as she calls herself now. She seemed to taunt me with it. Robert, I know this woman. You don’t. We were at school together. She was untruthful, dishonest, an evil influence on everyone whose trust or friendship she could win. I hated, I despised her. She stole things, she was a thief. She was sent away for being a thief. Why do you let her influence you? Sir Robert Chiltern Gertrude, what you tell me may be true, but it happened many years ago. It is best forgotten! Mrs. Cheveley may have changed since then. No one should be entirely judged by their past. Lady Chiltern Sadly. One’s past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged. Sir Robert Chiltern That is a hard saying, Gertrude! Lady Chiltern It is a true saying, Robert. And what did she mean by boasting that she had got you to lend your support, your name, to a thing I have heard you describe as the most dishonest and fraudulent scheme there has ever been in political life? Sir Robert Chiltern Biting his lip. I was mistaken in the view I took. We all may make mistakes. Lady Chiltern But you told me yesterday that you had received the report from the Commission, and that it entirely condemned the whole thing. Sir Robert Chiltern Walking up and down. I have reasons now to believe that the Commission was prejudiced, or, at any rate, misinformed. Besides, Gertrude, public and private life are different things. They have different laws, and move on different lines. Lady Chiltern They should both represent man at his highest. I see no difference between them. Sir Robert Chiltern Stopping. In the present case, on a matter of practical politics, I have changed my mind. That is all. Lady Chiltern All! Sir Robert Chiltern Sternly. Yes! Lady Chiltern Robert! Oh! it is horrible that I should have to ask you such a question⁠—Robert, are you telling me the whole truth? Sir Robert Chiltern Why do you ask me such a question? Lady Chiltern After a pause. Why do you not answer it? Sir Robert Chiltern Sitting down. Gertrude, truth is a very complex thing, and politics is a very complex business. There are wheels within wheels. One may be under certain obligations to people that one must pay. Sooner or later in political life one has to compromise. Everyone does. Lady Chiltern Compromise? Robert, why do you talk so differently tonight from the way I have always heard you talk? Why are you changed? Sir Robert Chiltern I am not changed.