Lord Darlington My dear Lady Windermere!

Lady windermere (leaning back on the sofa) You look on me as 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. Nowadays 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!

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 tonight, 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 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.

Lady windermere Now, Lord Darlington. (Rising and crossing R., [in] 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, nowadays, are rather mercenary.

Lady windermere Don’t talk about such people.