The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Page B

It is my secret, it is not yours. If I make up my mind to tell her, and I think I will, I shall tell her before I leave the house—if not, I shall never tell her.
    L ORD W INDERMERE .
(Angrily.)
Then let me beg of you to leave our house at once. I will make your excuses to Margaret.
(Enter Lady Windermere R. She goes over to Mrs. Erlynne with the photograph in her hand. Lord Windermere moves to back of sofa, and anxiously watches Mrs. Erlynne as the scene progresses.)
    L ADY W INDERMERE . I am so sorry, Mrs. Erlynne, to have kept you waiting. I couldn’t find the photograph anywhere. At last I discovered it in my husband’s dressing-room—he had stolen it.
    M RS . E RLYNNE .
(Takes the photograph from her and looks at it.)
I am not surprised—it is charming.
(Goes over to sofa with Lady Windermere, and sits down beside her. Looks again at the photograph.)
And so that is your little boy! What is he called?
    L ADY W INDERMERE . Gerard, after my dear father.
    M RS . E RLYNNE .
(Laying the photograph down.)
Really?
    L ADY W INDERMERE . Yes. If it had been a girl, I would have called it after my mother. My mother had the same name as myself, Margaret.
    M RS . E RLYNNE . My name is Margaret too.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . Indeed!
    M RS . E RLYNNE . Yes.
(Pause.)
You are devoted to your mother’s memory, Lady Windermere, your husband tells me.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . We all have ideals in life. At least we all should have. Mine is my mother.
    M RS . E RLYNNE . Ideals are dangerous things. Realities are better. They wound, but they’re better.
    L ADY W INDERMERE .
(Shaking her head.)
If I lost my ideals, I should lose everything.
    M RS . E RLYNNE . Everything?
    L ADY W INDERMERE . Yes.
(Pause.)
    M RS . E RLYNNE . Did your father often speak to you of your mother?
    L ADY W INDERMERE . No, it gave him too much pain. He told me how my mother had died a few months after I was born. His eyes filled with tears as he spoke. Then he begged me never to mention her name to him again. It made him suffer even to hear it. My father—my father really died of a broken heart. His was the most ruined life I know.
    M RS . E RLYNNE .
(Rising.)
I am afraid I must go now, Lady Windermere.
    L ADY W INDERMERE .
(Rising.)
Oh no, don’t.
    M RS . E RLYNNE . I think I had better. My carriage must have come back by this time. I sent it to Lady Jedburgh’s with a note.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . Arthur, would you mind seeing if Mrs. Erlynne’s carriage has come back?
    M RS . E RLYNNE . Pray don’t trouble, Lord Windermere.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . Yes, Arthur, do go, please.
    (Lord Windermere hesitates for a moment and looks at Mrs. Erlynne. She remains quite impassive. He leaves the room.)
    (To Mrs. Erlynne.)
Oh! What am I to say to you? You saved me last night?
(Goes towards her.)
    M RS . E RLYNNE . Hush—don’t speak of it.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . I must speak of it. I can’t let you think that I am going to accept this sacrifice. I am not. It is too great. I am going to tell my husband everything. It is my duty.
    M RS . E RLYNNE . It is not your duty—at least you have duties to others besides him. You say you owe me something?
    L ADY W INDERMERE . I owe you everything.
    M RS . E RLYNNE . Then pay your debt by silence. That is the only way in which it can be paid. Don’t spoil the one good thing I have done in my life by telling it to any one. Promise me that what passed last night will remain a secret between us. You must not bring misery into your husband’s life. Why spoil his love? You must not spoil it. Love is easily killed. Oh! how easily love is killed! Pledge me your word, Lady Windermere, that you will
never
tell him. I insist upon it.
    L ADY W INDERMERE .
(With bowed head.)
It is your will, not mine.
    M RS . E RLYNNE . Yes, it is my will. And never forget your child—I like to think of you as a mother. I like you to think of yourself as one.
    L ADY W INDERMERE .
(Looking up.)
I always will now. Only once in my life I have forgotten my own