CECIL GRAHAM. Come over here. I want you particularly. [Aside.]
Darlington has been moralising and talking about the purity of
love, and that sort of thing, and he has got some woman in his
rooms all the time.
LORD AUGUSTUS. No, really! really!
CECIL GRAHAM. [In a low voice.] Yes, here is her fan. [Points to
the fan.]
LORD AUGUSTUS. [Chuckling.] By Jove! By Jove!
LORD WINDERMERE. [Up by door.] I am really off now, Lord
Darlington. I am sorry you are leaving England so soon. Pray call
on us when you come back! My wife and I will be charmed to see
you!
LORD DARLINGTON. [Up sage with LORD WINDERMERE.] I am afraid I
shall be away for many years. Good-night!
CECIL GRAHAM. Arthur!
LORD WINDERMERE. What?
CECIL GRAHAM. I want to speak to you for a moment. No, do come!
LORD WINDERMERE. [Putting on his coat.] I can't - I'm off!
CECIL GRAHAM. It is something very particular. It will interest
you enormously.
LORD WINDERMERE. [Smiling.] It is some of your nonsense, Cecil.
CECIL GRAHAM. It isn't! It isn't really.
LORD AUGUSTUS. [Going to him.] My dear fellow, you mustn't go
yet. I have a lot to talk to you about. And Cecil has something
to show you.
LORD WINDERMERE. [Walking over.] Well, what is it?
CECIL GRAHAM. Darlington has got a woman here in his rooms. Here
is her fan. Amusing, isn't it? [A pause.]
LORD WINDERMERE. Good God! [Seizes the fan - DUMBY rises.]
CECIL GRAHAM. What is the matter?
LORD WINDERMERE. Lord Darlington!
LORD DARLINGTON. [Turning round.] Yes!
LORD WINDERMERE. What is my wife's fan doing here in your rooms?
Hands off, Cecil. Don't touch me.
LORD DARLINGTON. Your wife's fan?
LORD WINDERMERE. Yes, here it is!
LORD DARLINGTON. [Walking towards him.] I don't know!
LORD WINDERMERE. You must know. I demand an explanation. Don't
hold me, you fool. [To CECIL GRAHAM.]
LORD DARLINGTON. [Aside.] She is here after all!
LORD WINDERMERE. Speak, sir! Why is my wife's fan here? Answer
me! By God! I'll search your rooms, and if my wife's here, I'll -
[Moves.]
LORD DARLINGTON. You shall not search my rooms. You have no right
to do so. I forbid you!
LORD WINDERMERE. You scoundrel! I'll not leave your room till I
have searched every corner of it! What moves behind that curtain?
[Rushes towards the curtain C.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Enters behind R.] Lord Windermere!
LORD WINDERMERE. Mrs. Erlynne!
[Every one starts and turns round. LADY WINDERMERE slips out from
behind the curtain and glides from the room L.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. I am afraid I took your wife's fan in mistake for my
own, when I was leaving your house to-night. I am so sorry.
[Takes fan from him. LORD WINDERMERE looks at her in contempt.
LORD DARLINGTON in mingled astonishment and anger. LORD AUGUSTUS
turns away. The other men smile at each other.]
ACT DROP.
FOURTH ACT
SCENE - Same as in Act I.
LADY WINDERMERE. [Lying on sofa.] How can I tell him? I can't
tell him. It would kill me. I wonder what happened after I
escaped from that horrible room. Perhaps she told them the true
reason of her being there, and the real meaning of that - fatal fan
of mine. Oh, if he knows - how can I look him in the face again?
He would never forgive me. [Touches bell.] How securely one
thinks one lives - out of reach of temptation, sin, folly. And
then suddenly - Oh! Life is terrible. It rules us, we do not rule
it.
[Enter ROSALIE R.]
ROSALIE. Did your ladyship ring for me?
LADY WINDERMERE. Yes. Have you found out at what time Lord
Windermere came in last night?
ROSALIE. His lordship did not come in till five o'clock.
LADY WINDERMERE. Five o'clock? He knocked at my door this
morning, didn't he?
ROSALIE. Yes, my lady - at half-past nine. I told him your
ladyship was not awake yet.
LADY WINDERMERE. Did he say anything?
ROSALIE. Something about your ladyship's fan. I didn't quite
catch what his lordship said. Has the fan been lost, my lady? I
can't find it, and Parker says it was not left in any of the rooms.
He has looked in all of them and on the terrace as well.
LADY WINDERMERE. It doesn't matter. Tell Parker not to trouble.
That will do.
[Exit ROSALIE.]
LADY WINDERMERE. [Rising.] She is sure to tell him. 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. Why should she hesitate between her ruin and
mine? . . . How strange! I would have publicly disgraced her in my
own house. 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! For even if she doesn't tell, I must. Oh! the shame
of it, the shame of it. To tell it is to live through it all
again. Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the
second. Words are perhaps the worst. Words are merciless. . . Oh!
[Starts as LORD WINDERMERE enters.]
LORD WINDERMERE. [Kisses her.] Margaret - how pale you look!
LADY WINDERMERE. I slept very badly.
LORD WINDERMERE. [Sitting on sofa with her.] I am so sorry. I
came in dreadfully late, and didn't like to wake you. You are
crying, dear.
LADY WINDERMERE. Yes, I am crying, for I have something to tell
you, Arthur.
LORD WINDERMERE. My dear child, you are not well. You've been
doing too much. Let us go away to the country. You'll be all
right at Selby. The season is almost over. There is no use
staying on. Poor darling! We'll go away to-day, if you like.
[Rises.] We can easily catch the 3.40. I'll send a wire to
Fannen. [Crosses and sits down at table to write a telegram.]
LADY WINDERMERE. Yes; let us go away to-day. No; I can't go to-
day, Arthur. There is some one I must see before I leave town -
some one who has been kind to me.
LORD WINDERMERE. [Rising and leaning over sofa.] Kind to you?
LADY WINDERMERE. Far more than that. [Rises and goes to him.] I
will tell you, Arthur, but only love me, love me as you used to
love me.
LORD WINDERMERE. Used to? You are not thinking of that wretched
woman who came here last night? [Coming round and sitting R. of
her.] You don't still imagine - no, you couldn't.
LADY WINDERMERE. I don't. I know now I was wrong and foolish.
LORD WINDERMERE. It was very good of you to receive her last night
- but you are never to see her again.
LADY WINDERMERE. Why do you say that? [A pause.]
LORD WINDERMERE. [Holding her hand.] Margaret, I thought Mrs.
Erlynne was a woman more sinned against than sinning, as the phrase
goes. I thought she wanted to be good, to get back into a place
that she had lost by a moment's folly, to lead again a decent life.
I believed what she told me - I was mistaken in her. She is bad -
as bad as a woman can be.
LADY WINDERMERE. Arthur, Arthur, don't talk so bitterly about any
woman. I don't think now that people can be divided into the good
