Mrs Erlynne (looking steadily at him) I question that.

Lord Windermere I do know you. For twenty years of your life you lived without your child, without a thought of your child. One day you read in the papers that she had married a rich man. You saw your hideous chance. You knew that to spare her the ignominy of learning that a woman like you was her mother, I would endure anything. You began your blackmailing.°

Mrs Erlynne (shrugging her shoulders) Don’t use ugly words, Windermere. They are vulgar. I saw my chance, it is true, and took it.

Lord Windermere Yes, you took it—and spoiled it all last night by being found out.

Mrs Erlynne (with a strange smile) You are quite right, I spoiled it all last night.

Lord Windermere And as for your blunder in taking my wife’s fan from here and then leaving it about in Darlington’s rooms, it is unpardonable. I can’t bear the sight of it now. I shall never let my wife use it again. The thing is soiled for me. You should have kept it and not brought it back.

Mrs Erlynne I think I shall keep it. (Goes up) It’s extremely pretty. (Takes up fan) I shall ask Margaret to give it to me.

Lord Windermere I hope my wife will give it to you.

Mrs Erlynne Oh, I’m sure she will have no objection.

Lord Windermere I wish that at the same time she would give you a miniature she kisses every night before she prays—It’s the miniature of a young innocent-looking girl° with beautiful dark hair.

Mrs Erlynne Ah, yes, I remember. How long ago that seems. (Goes to a sofa and sits down) It was done before I was married. Dark hair and an innocent expression were the fashion then, Windermere!

A pause

Lord Windermere What do you mean by coming here this morning? What is your object? (Crossing L.C. and sitting)

Mrs Erlynne (with a note of irony in her voice) To bid good-bye to my dear daughter, of course. (Lord Windermere bites his underlip in anger. Mrs Erlynne looks at him, and her voice and manner become serious. In her accents as she talks there is a note of deep tragedy. For a moment she reveals herself) Oh, don’t imagine I am going to have a pathetic scene with her, weep on her neck and tell her who I am, and all that kind of thing. I have no ambition to play the part of a mother. Only once in my life have I known a mother’s feelings. That was last night. They were terrible—they made me suffer—they made me suffer too much. For twenty years, as you say, I have lived childless—I want to live childless still. (Hiding her feelings with a trivial laugh) Besides, my dear Windermere, how on earth could I pose as a mother with a grown-up daughter? Margaret is twenty-one, and I have never admitted that I am more than twenty-nine, or thirty at the most. Twenty-nine when there are pink shades,° thirty when there are not. So you see what difficulties it would involve. No, as far as I am concerned, let your wife cherish the memory of this dead, stainless mother. Why should I interfere with her illusions? I find it hard enough to keep my own. I lost one illusion last night. I thought I had no heart. I find I have, and a heart doesn’t suit me,° Windermere. Somehow it doesn’t go with modern dress. It makes one look old. (Takes up hand-mirror from table and looks into it) And it spoils one’s career at critical moments.

Lord Windermere You fill me with horror—with absolute horror.

Mrs Erlynne (rising) I suppose, Windermere, you would like me to retire into a convent, or become a hospital nurse, or something of that kind, as people do in silly modern novels. That is stupid of you,