[Enter LORD AUGUSTUS R.U.E. carrying bouquet.]
LORD AUGUSTUS. Dear lady, I am in such suspense! May I not have
an answer to my request?
MRS. ERLYNNE. Lord Augustus, listen to me. You are to take Lord
Windermere down to your club at once, and keep him there as long as
possible. You understand?
LORD AUGUSTUS. But you said you wished me to keep early hours!
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Nervously.] Do what I tell you. Do what I tell
you.
LORD AUGUSTUS. And my reward?
MRS. ERLYNNE. Your reward? Your reward? Oh! ask me that to-
morrow. But don't let Windermere out of your sight to-night. If
you do I will never forgive you. I will never speak to you again.
I'll have nothing to do with you. Remember you are to keep
Windermere at your club, and don't let him come back to-night.
[Exit L.]
LORD AUGUSTUS. Well, really, I might be her husband already.
Positively I might. [Follows her in a bewildered manner.]
ACT DROP.
THIRD ACT
SCENE
Lord Darlington's Rooms. A large sofa is in front of fireplace R.
At the back of the stage a curtain is drawn across the window.
Doors L. and R. Table R. with writing materials. Table C. with
syphons, glasses, and Tantalus frame. Table L. with cigar and
cigarette box. Lamps lit.
LADY WINDERMERE. [Standing by the fireplace.] Why doesn't he
come? This waiting is horrible. He should be here. Why is he not
here, to wake by passionate words some fire within me? I am cold -
cold as a loveless thing. Arthur must have read my letter by this
time. If he cared for me, he would have come after me, would have
taken me back by force. But he doesn't care. He's entrammelled by
this woman - fascinated by her - dominated by her. If a woman
wants to hold a man, she has merely to appeal to what is worst in
him. We make gods of men and they leave us. Others make brutes of
them and they fawn and are faithful. How hideous life is! . . .
Oh! it was mad of me to come here, horribly mad. And yet, which is
the worst, I wonder, to be at the mercy of a man who loves one, or
the wife of a man who in one's own house dishonours one? What
woman knows? What woman in the whole world? But will he love me
always, this man to whom I am giving my life? What do I bring him?
Lips that have lost the note of joy, eyes that are blinded by
tears, chill hands and icy heart. I bring him nothing. I must go
back - no; I can't go back, my letter has put me in their power -
Arthur would not take me back! That fatal letter! No! Lord
Darlington leaves England to-morrow. I will go with him - I have
no choice. [Sits down for a few moments. Then starts up and puts
on her cloak.] No, no! I will go back, let Arthur do with me what
he pleases. I can't wait here. It has been madness my coming. I
must go at once. As for Lord Darlington - Oh! here he is! What
shall I do? What can I say to him? Will he let me go away at all?
I have heard that men are brutal, horrible . . . Oh! [Hides her
face in her hands.]
[Enter MRS. ERLYNNE L.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. Lady Windermere! [LADY WINDERMERE starts and looks
up. Then recoils in contempt.] Thank Heaven I am in time. You
must go back to your husband's house immediately.
LADY WINDERMERE. Must?
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Authoritatively.] Yes, you must! There is not a
second to be lost. Lord Darlington may return at any moment.
LADY WINDERMERE. Don't come near me!
MRS. ERLYNNE. Oh! You are on the brink of ruin, you are on the
brink of a hideous precipice. You must leave this place at once,
my carriage is waiting at the corner of the street. You must come
with me and drive straight home.
[LADY WINDERMERE throws off her cloak and flings it on the sofa.]
What are you doing?
LADY WINDERMERE. Mrs. Erlynne - if you had not come here, I would
have gone back. But now that I see you, I feel that nothing in the
whole world would induce me to live under the same roof as Lord
Windermere. You fill me with horror. There is something about you
that stirs the wildest - rage within me. And I know why you are
here. My husband sent you to lure me back that I might serve as a
blind to whatever relations exist between you and him.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Oh! You don't think that - you can't.
LADY WINDERMERE. Go back to my husband, Mrs. Erlynne. He belongs
to you and not to me. I suppose he is afraid of a scandal. Men
are such cowards. They outrage every law of the world, and are
afraid of the world's tongue. But he had better prepare himself.
He shall have a scandal. He shall have the worst scandal there has
been in London for years. He shall see his name in every vile
paper, mine on every hideous placard.
MRS. ERLYNNE. No - no -
LADY WINDERMERE. Yes! he shall. Had he come himself, I admit I
would have gone back to the life of degradation you and he had
prepared for me - I was going back - but to stay himself at home,
and to send you as his messenger - oh! it was infamous - infamous.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [C.] Lady Windermere, you wrong me horribly - you
wrong your husband horribly. He doesn't know you are here - he
thinks you are safe in your own house. He thinks you are asleep in
your own room. He never read the mad letter you wrote to him!
LADY WINDERMERE. [R.] Never read it!
MRS. ERLYNNE. No - he knows nothing about it.
LADY WINDERMERE. How simple you think me! [Going to her.] You
are lying to me!
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Restraining herself.] I am not. I am telling you
the truth.
LADY WINDERMERE. If my husband didn't read my letter, how is it
that you are here? Who told you I had left the house you were
shameless enough to enter? Who told you where I had gone to? My
husband told you, and sent you to decoy me back. [Crosses L.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. [R.C.] Your husband has never seen the letter. I -
saw it, I opened it. I - read it.
LADY WINDERMERE. [Turning to her.] You opened a letter of mine to
my husband? You wouldn't dare!
MRS. ERLYNNE. Dare! Oh! to save you from the abyss into which you
are falling, there is nothing in the world I would not dare,
nothing in the whole world. Here is the letter. Your husband has
never read it. He never shall read it. [Going to fireplace.] It
should never have been written. [Tears it and throws it into the
fire.]
LADY WINDERMERE. [With infinite contempt in her voice and look.]
How do I know that that was my letter after all? You seem to think
the commonest device can take me in!
MRS. ERLYNNE. Oh! why do you disbelieve everything I tell you?
What object do you think I have in coming here, except to save you
from utter ruin, to save you from the consequence of a hideous
mistake? That letter that is burnt now WAS your letter. I swear
it to you!
LADY WINDERMERE. [Slowly.] You took good care to burn it before I
had examined it. I cannot trust you. You, whose whole life is a
lie, could you speak the truth about anything? [Sits down.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Hurriedly.] Think as you like about me - say what
you choose against me, but go back, go back to the husband you
love.
LADY WINDERMERE. [Sullenly.] I do NOT love him!
MRS. ERLYNNE. You do, and you know that he loves you.
LADY WINDERMERE. He does not understand what love is. He
understands it as little as you do - but I see what you want. It
would be a great advantage for you to get me back. Dear Heaven!
what a life I would have then! Living at the mercy of a woman who
has neither mercy nor pity in her, a woman whom it is an infamy to
meet, a degradation to know, a vile woman, a woman who comes
between husband and wife!
MRS. ERLYNNE. [With a gesture of despair.] Lady Windermere, Lady
Windermere, don't say such terrible things. You don't know how
terrible they are, how terrible and how unjust. Listen, you must
listen! Only go back to your husband, and I promise you never to
communicate with him again on any pretext - never to see him -
never to have anything to do with his life or yours. The money
that he gave me, he gave me not through love, but through hatred,
not in worship, but in contempt. The hold I have over him -
LADY WINDERMERE. [Rising.] Ah! you admit you have a hold!
MRS. ERLYNNE. Yes, and I will tell you what it is. It is his love
for you, Lady Windermere.
LADY WINDERMERE. You expect me to believe that?
MRS. ERLYNNE. You must believe it! It is true. It is his love
for you that has made him submit to - oh! call it what you like,
