The Importance of Being Earnest Read Online Free PDF Page A

he a myth?
    L ORD W INDERMERE . Her husband died many years ago. She is alone in the world.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . No relations?
(A pause.)
    L ORD W INDERMERE . None.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . Rather curious, isn’t it?
(L.)
    L ORD W INDERMERE .
(L.C.)
Margaret, I was saying to you—and I beg you to listen to me—that as far as I have known Mrs. Erlynne, she has conducted herself well. If years ago——
    L ADY W INDERMERE . Oh!
(Crossing R.C.)
I don’t want details about her life!
    L ORD W INDERMERE .
(C.)
I am not going to give you any details about her life. I tell you simply this—Mrs. Erlynne was once honoured, loved, respected. She was well born, she had position—she lost everything—threw it away, if you like. That makes it all the more bitter. Misfortunes one can endure—they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one’s own faults—ah!—there is the sting of life. It was twenty years ago, too. She was little more than a girl then. She had been a wife for even less time than you have.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . I am not interested in her—and—you should not mention this woman and me in the same breath. It is an error of taste.
(Sitting R. at desk.)
    L ORD W INDERMERE . Margaret, you could save this woman. She wants to get back into society, and she wants you to help her.
(Crossing to her.)
    L ADY W INDERMERE . Me!
    L ORD W INDERMERE . Yes, you.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . How impertinent of her!
(A pause.)
    L ORD W INDERMERE . Margaret, I came to ask you a great favour, and I still ask it of you, though you have discovered what I had intended you should never have known, that I have given Mrs. Erlynne a large sum of money. I want you to send her an invitation for our party to-night.
(Standing L. of her.)
    L ADY W INDERMERE . You are mad!
(Rises.)
    L ORD W INDERMERE . I entreat you. People may chatter about her, do chatter about her, of course, but they don’t know anything definite against her. She has been to several houses—not to houses where you would go, I admit, but still to houses where women who are in what is called Society now-a-days do go. That does not content her. She wants you to receive her once.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . As a triumph for her, I suppose?
    L ORD W INDERMERE . No; but because she knows that you are a good woman—and that if she comes here once she will have a chance of a happier, a surer life than she has had. She will make no further effort to know you. Won’t you help a woman who is trying to get back?
    L ADY W INDERMERE . No! If a woman really repents, she never wishes to return to the society that has made or seen her ruin.
    L ORD W INDERMERE . I beg of you.
    L ADY W INDERMERE .
(Crossing to door R.)
I am going to dress for dinner, and don’t mention the subject again this evening. Arthur
(Going to him C.)
, you fancy because I have no father or mother that I am alone in the world, and that you can treat me as you choose. You are wrong, I have friends, many friends.
    L ORD W INDERMERE .
(L.C.)
Margaret, you are talking foolishly, recklessly. I won’t argue with you, but I insist upon your asking Mrs. Erlynne to-night.
    L ADY W INDERMERE .
(R.C.)
I shall do nothing of the kind.
(Crossing L.C.)
    L ORD W INDERMERE . You refuse?
(C.)
    L ADY W INDERMERE . Absolutely!
    L ORD W INDERMERE . Ah, Margaret, do this for my sake; it is her last chance.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . What has that to do with me?
    L ORD W INDERMERE . How hard good women are!
    L ADY W INDERMERE . How weak bad men are!
    L ORD W INDERMERE . Margaret, none of us men may be good enough for the women we marry—that is quite true—but you don’t imagine I would ever—oh, the suggestion is monstrous!
    L ADY W INDERMERE . Why should
you
be different from other men? I am told that there is hardly a husband in London who does not waste his life over
some
shameful passion.
    L ORD W INDERMERE . I am not one of them.
    L ADY W INDERMERE . I am not sure of that!
    L ORD W INDERMERE . You are sure in your heart. But don’t