Lady Windermere's Fan

<h2>FOURTH ACT</h2> <br/> <p>SCENE - Same as in Act I.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Lying on sofa.]&nbsp; How can I tell him?&nbsp; I can&rsquo;t tell him.&nbsp; It would kill me.&nbsp; I wonder what happened after I escaped from that horrible room.&nbsp; Perhaps she told them the true reason of her being there, and the real meaning of that - fatal fan of mine.&nbsp; Oh, if he knows - how can I look him in the face again?&nbsp; He would never forgive me.&nbsp; [Touches bell.]&nbsp; How securely one thinks one lives - out of reach of temptation, sin, folly.&nbsp; And then suddenly - Oh!&nbsp; Life is terrible.&nbsp; It rules us, we do not rule it.</p> <p>[Enter ROSALIE R.]</p> <p>ROSALIE.&nbsp; Did your ladyship ring for me?</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; Have you found out at what time Lord Windermere came in last night?</p> <p>ROSALIE.&nbsp; His lordship did not come in till five o&rsquo;clock.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Five o&rsquo;clock?&nbsp; He knocked at my door this morning, didn&rsquo;t he?</p> <p>ROSALIE.&nbsp; Yes, my lady - at half-past nine.&nbsp; I told him your ladyship was not awake yet.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Did he say anything?</p> <p>ROSALIE.&nbsp; Something about your ladyship&rsquo;s fan.&nbsp; I didn&rsquo;t quite catch what his lordship said.&nbsp; Has the fan been lost, my lady?&nbsp; I can&rsquo;t find it, and Parker says it was not left in any of the rooms.&nbsp; He has looked in all of them and on the terrace as well.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; It doesn&rsquo;t matter.&nbsp; Tell Parker not to trouble.&nbsp; That will do.</p> <p>[Exit ROSALIE.]</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Rising.]&nbsp; She is sure to tell him.&nbsp; I can fancy a person doing a wonderful act of self-sacrifice, doing it spontaneously, recklessly, nobly - and afterwards finding out that it costs too much.&nbsp; Why should she hesitate between her ruin and mine? . . . How strange!&nbsp; I would have publicly disgraced her in my own house.&nbsp; She accepts public disgrace in the house of another to save me. . . . There is a bitter irony in things, a bitter irony in the way we talk of good and bad women. . . . Oh, what a lesson! and what a pity that in life we only get our lessons when they are of no use to us!&nbsp; For even if she doesn&rsquo;t tell, I must.&nbsp; Oh! the shame of it, the shame of it.&nbsp; To tell it is to live through it all again.&nbsp; Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the second.&nbsp; Words are perhaps the worst.&nbsp; Words are merciless. . . Oh!&nbsp; [Starts as LORD WINDERMERE enters.]</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Kisses her.]&nbsp; Margaret - how pale you look!</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I slept very badly.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Sitting on sofa with her.]&nbsp; I am so sorry.&nbsp; I came in dreadfully late, and didn&rsquo;t like to wake you.&nbsp; You are crying, dear.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Yes, I am crying, for I have something to tell you, Arthur.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; My dear child, you are not well.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ve been doing too much.&nbsp; Let us go away to the country.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll be all right at Selby.&nbsp; The season is almost over.&nbsp; There is no use staying on.&nbsp; Poor darling!&nbsp; We&rsquo;ll go away to-day, if you like.&nbsp; [Rises.]&nbsp; We can easily catch the 3.40.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll send a wire to Fannen.&nbsp; [Crosses and sits down at table to write a telegram.]</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Yes; let us go away to-day.&nbsp; No; I can&rsquo;t go to-day, Arthur.&nbsp; There is some one I must see before I leave town - some one who has been kind to me.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Rising and leaning over sofa.]&nbsp; Kind to you?</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Far more than that.&nbsp; [Rises and goes to him.]&nbsp; I will tell you, Arthur, but only love me, love me as you used to love me.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Used to?&nbsp; You are not thinking of that wretched woman who came here last night?&nbsp; [Coming round and sitting R. of her.]&nbsp; You don&rsquo;t still imagine - no, you couldn&rsquo;t.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t.&nbsp; I know now I was wrong and foolish.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; It was very good of you to receive her last night - but you are never to see her again.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Why do you say that?&nbsp; [A pause.]</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Holding her hand.]&nbsp; Margaret, I thought Mrs. Erlynne was a woman more sinned against than sinning, as the phrase goes.&nbsp; I thought she wanted to be good, to get back into a place that she had lost by a moment&rsquo;s folly, to lead again a decent life.&nbsp; I believed what she told me - I was mistaken in her.&nbsp; She is bad - as bad as a woman can be.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Arthur, Arthur, don&rsquo;t talk so bitterly about any woman.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t think now that people can be divided into the good and the bad as though they were two separate races or creations.&nbsp; What are called good women may have terrible things in them, mad moods of recklessness, assertion, jealousy, sin.&nbsp; Bad women, as they are termed, may have in them sorrow, repentance, pity, sacrifice.&nbsp; And I don&rsquo;t think Mrs. Erlynne a bad woman - I know she&rsquo;s not.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; My dear child, the woman&rsquo;s impossible.&nbsp; No matter what harm she tries to do us, you must never see her again.&nbsp; She is inadmissible anywhere.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; But I want to see her.&nbsp; I want her to come here.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Never!</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; She came here once as <i>your</i> guest.&nbsp; She must come now as <i>mine</i>.&nbsp; That is but fair.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; She should never have come here.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Rising.]&nbsp; It is too late, Arthur, to say that now.&nbsp; [Moves away.]</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Rising.]&nbsp; Margaret, if you knew where Mrs. Erlynne went last night, after she left this house, you would not sit in the same room with her.&nbsp; It was absolutely shameless, the whole thing.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Arthur, I can&rsquo;t bear it any longer.&nbsp; I must tell you.&nbsp; Last night -</p> <p>[Enter PARKER with a tray on which lie LADY WINDERMERE&rsquo;S fan and a card.]</p> <p>PARKER.&nbsp; Mrs. Erlynne has called to return your ladyship&rsquo;s fan which she took away by mistake last night.&nbsp; Mrs. Erlynne has written a message on the card.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Oh, ask Mrs. Erlynne to be kind enough to come up.&nbsp; [Reads card.]&nbsp; Say I shall be very glad to see her.&nbsp; [Exit PARKER.]&nbsp; She wants to see me, Arthur.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Takes card and looks at it.]&nbsp; Margaret, I <i>beg</i> you not to.&nbsp; Let me see her first, at any rate.&nbsp; She&rsquo;s a very dangerous woman.&nbsp; She is the most dangerous woman I know.&nbsp; You don&rsquo;t realise what you&rsquo;re doing.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; It is right that I should see her.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; My child, you may be on the brink of a great sorrow.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t go to meet it.&nbsp; It is absolutely necessary that I should see her before you do.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Why should it be necessary?</p> <p>[Enter PARKER.]</p> <p>PARKER.&nbsp; Mrs. Erlynne.</p> <p>[Enter MRS. ERLYNNE.]</p> <p>[Exit PARKER.]</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; How do you do, Lady Windermere?&nbsp; [To LORD WINDERMERE.]&nbsp; How do you do?&nbsp; Do you know, Lady Windermere, I am so sorry about your fan.&nbsp; I can&rsquo;t imagine how I made such a silly mistake.&nbsp; Most stupid of me.&nbsp; And as I was driving in your direction, I thought I would take the opportunity of returning your property in person with many apologies for my carelessness, and of bidding you good-bye.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Good-bye?&nbsp; [Moves towards sofa with MRS. ERLYNNE and sits down beside her.]&nbsp; Are you going away, then, Mrs. Erlynne?</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Yes; I am going to live abroad again.&nbsp; The English climate doesn&rsquo;t suit me.&nbsp; My - heart is affected here, and that I don&rsquo;t like.&nbsp; I prefer living in the south.&nbsp; London is too full of fogs and - and serious people, Lord Windermere.&nbsp; Whether the fogs produce the serious people or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don&rsquo;t know, but the whole thing rather gets on my nerves, and so I&rsquo;m leaving this afternoon by the Club Train.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; This afternoon?&nbsp; But I wanted so much to come and see you.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; How kind of you!&nbsp; But I am afraid I have to go.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Shall I never see you again, Mrs. Erlynne?</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; I am afraid not.&nbsp; Our lives lie too far apart.&nbsp; But there is a little thing I would like you to do for me.&nbsp; I want a photograph of you, Lady Windermere - would you give me one?&nbsp; You don&rsquo;t know how gratified I should be.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Oh, with pleasure.&nbsp; There is one on that table.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll show it to you. [Goes across to the table.]</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Coming up to MRS. ERLYNNE and speaking in a low voice.]&nbsp; It is monstrous your intruding yourself here after your conduct last night.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [With an amused smile.]&nbsp; My dear Windermere, manners before morals!</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Returning.]&nbsp; I&rsquo;m afraid it is very flattering - I am not so pretty as that.&nbsp; [Showing photograph.]</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; You are much prettier.&nbsp; But haven&rsquo;t you got one of yourself with your little boy?</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I have.&nbsp; Would you prefer one of those?</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Yes.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll go and get it for you, if you&rsquo;ll excuse me for a moment.&nbsp; I have one upstairs.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; So sorry, Lady Windermere, to give you so much trouble.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Moves to door R.]&nbsp; No trouble at all, Mrs. Erlynne.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Thanks so much.</p> <p>[Exit LADY WINDERMERE R.]&nbsp; You seem rather out of temper this morning, Windermere.&nbsp; Why should you be?&nbsp; Margaret and I get on charmingly together.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I can&rsquo;t bear to see you with her.&nbsp; Besides, you have not told me the truth, Mrs. Erlynne.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; I have not told <i>her</i> the truth, you mean.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Standing C.]&nbsp; I sometimes wish you had.&nbsp; I should have been spared then the misery, the anxiety, the annoyance of the last six months.&nbsp; But rather than my wife should know - that the mother whom she was taught to consider as dead, the mother whom she has mourned as dead, is living - a divorced woman, going about under an assumed name, a bad woman preying upon life, as I know you now to be - rather than that, I was ready to supply you with money to pay bill after bill, extravagance after extravagance, to risk what occurred yesterday, the first quarrel I have ever had with my wife.&nbsp; You don&rsquo;t understand what that means to me.&nbsp; How could you?&nbsp; But I tell you that the only bitter words that ever came from those sweet lips of hers were on your account, and I hate to see you next her.&nbsp; You sully the innocence that is in her. [Moves L.C.]&nbsp; And then I used to think that with all your faults you were frank and honest.&nbsp; You are not.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Why do you say that?</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; You made me get you an invitation to my wife&rsquo;s ball.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; For my daughter&rsquo;s ball - yes.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; You came, and within an hour of your leaving the house you are found in a man&rsquo;s rooms - you are disgraced before every one.&nbsp; [Goes up stage C.]</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Yes.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Turning round on her.]&nbsp; Therefore I have a right to look upon you as what you are - a worthless, vicious woman.&nbsp; I have the right to tell you never to enter this house, never to attempt to come near my wife -</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [Coldly.]&nbsp; My daughter, you mean.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; You have no right to claim her as your daughter.&nbsp; You left her, abandoned her when she was but a child in the cradle, abandoned her for your lover, who abandoned you in turn.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [Rising.]&nbsp; Do you count that to his credit, Lord Windermere - or to mine?</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; To his, now that I know you.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Take care - you had better be careful.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Oh, I am not going to mince words for you.&nbsp; I know you thoroughly.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [Looks steadily at him.]&nbsp; I question that.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I <i>do</i> know you.&nbsp; For twenty years of your life you lived without your child, without a thought of your child.&nbsp; One day you read in the papers that she had married a rich man.&nbsp; You saw your hideous chance.&nbsp; You knew that to spare her the ignominy of learning that a woman like you was her mother, I would endure anything.&nbsp; You began your blackmailing,</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [Shrugging her shoulders.]&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t use ugly words, Windermere.&nbsp; They are vulgar.&nbsp; I saw my chance, it is true, and took it.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Yes, you took it - and spoiled it all last night by being found out.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [With a strange smile.]&nbsp; You are quite right, I spoiled it all last night.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; And as for your blunder in taking my wife&rsquo;s fan from here and then leaving it about in Darlington&rsquo;s rooms, it is unpardonable.&nbsp; I can&rsquo;t bear the sight of it now.&nbsp; I shall never let my wife use it again.&nbsp; The thing is soiled for me.&nbsp; You should have kept it and not brought it back.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; I think I shall keep it.&nbsp; [Goes up.]&nbsp; It&rsquo;s extremely pretty.&nbsp; [Takes up fan.]&nbsp; I shall ask Margaret to give it to me.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I hope my wife will give it you.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Oh, I&rsquo;m sure she will have no objection.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I wish that at the same time she would give you a miniature she kisses every night before she prays - It&rsquo;s the miniature of a young innocent-looking girl with beautiful <i>dark</i> hair.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Ah, yes, I remember.&nbsp; How long ago that seems!&nbsp; [Goes to sofa and sits down.]&nbsp; It was done before I was married.&nbsp; Dark hair and an innocent expression were the fashion then, Windermere!&nbsp; [A pause.]</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; What do you mean by coming here this morning?&nbsp; What is your object?&nbsp; [Crossing L.C. and sitting.]</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [With a note of irony in her voice.]&nbsp; To bid good-bye to my dear daughter, of course.&nbsp; [LORD WINDERMERE bites his under lip in anger.&nbsp; MRS. ERLYNNE looks at him, and her voice and manner become serious.&nbsp; In her accents at she talks there is a note of deep tragedy.&nbsp; For a moment she reveals herself.]&nbsp; Oh, don&rsquo;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.&nbsp; I have no ambition to play the part of a mother.&nbsp; Only once in my life like I known a mother&rsquo;s feelings.&nbsp; That was last night.&nbsp; They were terrible - they made me suffer - they made me suffer too much.&nbsp; For twenty years, as you say, I have lived childless, - I want to live childless still.&nbsp; [Hiding her feelings with a trivial laugh.]&nbsp; Besides, my dear Windermere, how on earth could I pose as a mother with a grown-up daughter?&nbsp; Margaret is twenty-one, and I have never admitted that I am more than twenty-nine, or thirty at the most.&nbsp; Twenty-nine when there are pink shades, thirty when there are not.&nbsp; So you see what difficulties it would involve.&nbsp; No, as far as I am concerned, let your wife cherish the memory of this dead, stainless mother.&nbsp; Why should I interfere with her illusions?&nbsp; I find it hard enough to keep my own.&nbsp; I lost one illusion last night.&nbsp; I thought I had no heart.&nbsp; I find I have, and a heart doesn&rsquo;t suit me, Windermere.&nbsp; Somehow it doesn&rsquo;t go with modern dress.&nbsp; It makes one look old.&nbsp; [Takes up hand-mirror from table and looks into it.]&nbsp; And it spoils one&rsquo;s career at critical moments.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; You fill me with horror - with absolute horror.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [Rising.]&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; That is stupid of you, Arthur; in real life we don&rsquo;t do such things - not as long as we have any good looks left, at any rate.&nbsp; No - what consoles one nowadays is not repentance, but pleasure.&nbsp; Repentance is quite out of date.&nbsp; And besides, if a woman really repents, she has to go to a bad dressmaker, otherwise no one believes in her.&nbsp; And nothing in the world would induce me to do that.&nbsp; No; I am going to pass entirely out of your two lives.&nbsp; My coming into them has been a mistake - I discovered that last night.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; A fatal mistake.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [Smiling.]&nbsp; Almost fatal.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I am sorry now I did not tell my wife the whole thing at once.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; I regret my bad actions.&nbsp; You regret your good ones - that is the difference between us.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t trust you.&nbsp; I <i>will</i> tell my wife.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s better for her to know, and from me.&nbsp; It will cause her infinite pain - it will humiliate her terribly, but it&rsquo;s right that she should know.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; You propose to tell her?</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I am going to tell her.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [Going up to him.]&nbsp; If you do, I will make my name so infamous that it will mar every moment of her life.&nbsp; It will ruin her, and make her wretched.&nbsp; If you dare to tell her, there is no depth of degradation I will not sink to, no pit of shame I will not enter.&nbsp; You shall not tell her - I forbid you.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Why?</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [After a pause.]&nbsp; If I said to you that I cared for her, perhaps loved her even - you would sneer at me, wouldn&rsquo;t you?</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I should feel it was not true.&nbsp; A mother&rsquo;s love means devotion, unselfishness, sacrifice.&nbsp; What could you know of such things?</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; You are right.&nbsp; What could I know of such things?&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t let us talk any more about it - as for telling my daughter who I am, that I do not allow.&nbsp; It is my secret, it is not yours.&nbsp; 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.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Angrily.]&nbsp; Then let me beg of you to leave our house at once.&nbsp; I will make your excuses to Margaret.</p> <p>[Enter LADY WINDERMERE R.&nbsp; She goes over to MRS. ERLYNNE with the photograph in her hand.&nbsp; LORD WINDERMERE moves to back of sofa, and anxiously watches MRS. ERLYNNE as the scene progresses.]</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I am so sorry, Mrs. Erlynne, to have kept you waiting.&nbsp; I couldn&rsquo;t find the photograph anywhere.&nbsp; At last I discovered it in my husband&rsquo;s dressing-room - he had stolen it.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [Takes the photograph from her and looks at it.]&nbsp; I am not surprised - it is charming.&nbsp; [Goes over to sofa with LADY WINDERMERE, and sits down beside her.&nbsp; Looks again at the photograph.]&nbsp; And so that is your little boy!&nbsp; What is he called?</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Gerard, after my dear father.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [Laying the photograph down.]&nbsp; Really?</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; If it had been a girl, I would have called it after my mother.&nbsp; My mother had the same name as myself, Margaret.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; My name is Margaret too.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Indeed!</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; [Pause.]&nbsp; You are devoted to your mother&rsquo;s memory, Lady Windermere, your husband tells me.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; We all have ideals in life.&nbsp; At least we all should have.&nbsp; Mine is my mother.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Ideals are dangerous things.&nbsp; Realities are better.&nbsp; They wound, but they&rsquo;re better.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Shaking her head.]&nbsp; If I lost my ideals, I should lose everything.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Everything?</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; [Pause.]</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Did your father often speak to you of your mother?</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; No, it gave him too much pain.&nbsp; He told me how my mother had died a few months after I was born.&nbsp; His eyes filled with tears as he spoke.&nbsp; Then he begged me never to mention her name to him again.&nbsp; It made him suffer even to hear it.&nbsp; My father - my father really died of a broken heart.&nbsp; His was the most ruined life know,</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [Rising.]&nbsp; I am afraid I must go now, Lady Windermere.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Rising.]&nbsp; Oh no, don&rsquo;t.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; I think I had better.&nbsp; My carriage must have come back by this time.&nbsp; I sent it to Lady Jedburgh&rsquo;s with a note.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Arthur, would you mind seeing if Mrs. Erlynne&rsquo;s carriage has come back?</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Pray don&rsquo;t trouble, Lord Windermere.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Yes, Arthur, do go, please.</p> <p>[LORD WINDERMERE hesitated for a moment and looks at MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; She remains quite impassive.&nbsp; He leaves the room.]</p> <p>[To MRS. ERLYNNE.]&nbsp; Oh!&nbsp; What am I to say to you?&nbsp; You saved me last night?&nbsp; [Goes towards her.]</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Hush - don&rsquo;t speak of it.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I must speak of it.&nbsp; I can&rsquo;t let you think that I am going to accept this sacrifice.&nbsp; I am not.&nbsp; It is too great.&nbsp; I am going to tell my husband everything.&nbsp; It is my duty.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; It is not your duty - at least you have duties to others besides him.&nbsp; You say you owe me something?</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; I owe you everything.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Then pay your debt by silence.&nbsp; That is the only way in which it can be paid.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t spoil the one good thing I have done in my life by telling it to any one.&nbsp; Promise me that what passed last night will remain a secret between us.&nbsp; You must not bring misery into your husband&rsquo;s life.&nbsp; Why spoil his love?&nbsp; You must not spoil it.&nbsp; Love is easily killed.&nbsp; Oh! how easily love is killed.&nbsp; Pledge me your word, Lady Windermere, that you will never tell him.&nbsp; I insist upon it.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [With bowed head.]&nbsp; It is your will, not mine.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Yes, it is my will.&nbsp; And never forget your child - I like to think of you as a mother.&nbsp; I like you to think of yourself as one.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Looking up.]&nbsp; I always will now.&nbsp; Only once in my life I have forgotten my own mother - that was last night.&nbsp; Oh, if I had remembered her I should not have been so foolish, so wicked.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [With a slight shudder.]&nbsp; Hush, last night is quite over.</p> <p>[Enter LORD WINDERMERE.]</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Your carriage has not come back yet, Mrs. Erlynne.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; It makes no matter.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll take a hansom.&nbsp; There is nothing in the world so respectable as a good Shrewsbury and Talbot.&nbsp; And now, dear Lady Windermere, I am afraid it is really good-bye.&nbsp; [Moves up C.]&nbsp; Oh, I remember.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll think me absurd, but do you know I&rsquo;ve taken a great fancy to this fan that I was silly enough to run away with last night from your ball.&nbsp; Now, I wonder would you give it to me?&nbsp; Lord Windermere says you may.&nbsp; I know it is his present.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Oh, certainly, if it will give you any pleasure.&nbsp; But it has my name on it.&nbsp; It has &lsquo;Margaret&rsquo; on it.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; But we have the same Christian name.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Oh, I forgot.&nbsp; Of course, do have it.&nbsp; What a wonderful chance our names being the same!</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; Quite wonderful.&nbsp; Thanks - it will always remind me of you.&nbsp; [Shakes hands with her.]</p> <p>[Enter PARKER.]</p> <p>PARKER.&nbsp; Lord Augustus Lorton.&nbsp; Mrs. Erlynne&rsquo;s carriage has come.</p> <p>[Enter LORD AUGUSTUS.]</p> <p>LORD AUGUSTUS.&nbsp; Good morning, dear boy.&nbsp; Good morning, Lady Windermere.&nbsp; [Sees MRS. ERLYNNE.]&nbsp; Mrs. Erlynne!</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; How do you do, Lord Augustus?&nbsp; Are you quite well this morning?</p> <p>LORD AUGUSTUS.&nbsp; [Coldly.]&nbsp; Quite well, thank you, Mrs. Erlynne.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; You don&rsquo;t look at all well, Lord Augustus.&nbsp; You stop up too late - it is so bad for you.&nbsp; You really should take more care of yourself.&nbsp; Good-bye, Lord Windermere. [Goes towards door with a bow to LORD AUGUSTUS.&nbsp; Suddenly smiles and looks back at him.]&nbsp; Lord Augustus!&nbsp; Won&rsquo;t you see me to my carriage?&nbsp; You might carry the fan.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Allow me!</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; No; I want Lord Augustus.&nbsp; I have a special message for the dear Duchess.&nbsp; Won&rsquo;t you carry the fan, Lord Augustus?</p> <p>LORD AUGUSTUS.&nbsp; If you really desire it, Mrs. Erlynne.</p> <p>MRS. ERLYNNE.&nbsp; [Laughing.]&nbsp; Of course I do.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll carry it so gracefully.&nbsp; You would carry off anything gracefully, dear Lord Augustus.</p> <p>[When she reaches the door she looks back for a moment at LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Their eyes meet.&nbsp; Then she turns, and exit C. followed by LORD AUGUSTUS.]</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; You will never speak against Mrs. Erlynne again, Arthur, will you?</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Gravely.]&nbsp; She is better than one thought her.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; She is better than I am.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Smiling as he strokes her hair.]&nbsp; Child, you and she belong to different worlds.&nbsp; Into your world evil has never entered.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t say that, Arthur.&nbsp; There is the same world for all of us, and good and evil, sin and innocence, go through it hand in hand.&nbsp; To shut one&rsquo;s eyes to half of life that one may live securely is as though one blinded oneself that one might walk with more safety in a land of pit and precipice.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Moves down with her.]&nbsp; Darling, why do you say that?</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Sits on sofa.]&nbsp; Because I, who had shut my eyes to life, came to the brink.&nbsp; And one who had separated us -</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; We were never separated.</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; We never must be again.&nbsp; O Arthur, don&rsquo;t love me less, and I will trust you more.&nbsp; I will trust you absolutely.&nbsp; Let us go to Selby.&nbsp; In the Rose Garden at Selby the roses are white and red.</p> <p>[Enter LORD AUGUSTUS C.]</p> <p>LORD AUGUSTUS.&nbsp; Arthur, she has explained everything!</p> <p>[LADY WINDERMERE looks horribly frightened at this.&nbsp; LORD WINDERMERE starts.&nbsp; LORD AUGUSTUS takes WINDERMERE by the arm and brings him to front of stage.&nbsp; He talks rapidly and in a low voice.&nbsp; LADY WINDERMERE stands watching them in terror.]&nbsp; My dear fellow, she has explained every demmed thing.&nbsp; We all wronged her immensely.&nbsp; It was entirely for my sake she went to Darlington&rsquo;s rooms.&nbsp; Called first at the Club - fact is, wanted to put me out of suspense - and being told I had gone on - followed - naturally frightened when she heard a lot of us coming in - retired to another room - I assure you, most gratifying to me, the whole thing.&nbsp; We all behaved brutally to her.&nbsp; She is just the woman for me.&nbsp; Suits me down to the ground.&nbsp; All the conditions she makes are that we live entirely out of England.&nbsp; A very good thing too.&nbsp; Demmed clubs, demmed climate, demmed cooks, demmed everything.&nbsp; Sick of it all!</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Frightened.]&nbsp; Has Mrs. Erlynne - ?</p> <p>LORD AUGUSTUS.&nbsp; [Advancing towards her with a low bow.]&nbsp; Yes, Lady Windermere -&nbsp; Mrs. Erlynne has done me the honour of accepting my hand.</p> <p>LORD WINDERMERE.&nbsp; Well, you are certainly marrying a very clever woman!</p> <p>LADY WINDERMERE.&nbsp; [Taking her husband&rsquo;s hand.]&nbsp; Ah, you&rsquo;re marrying a very good woman!</p> <p>CURTAIN</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />