Free Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde Page A

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.
    LADY WINDERMERE.
(With bowed head.)
It is your will, not mine.
    MRS. ERLYNNE. 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.
    LADY WINDERMERE.
(Looking up.)
I always will now. Only once in
my life I have forgotten my own mother—that was last night. Oh,
if I had remembered her I should not have been so foolish, so
wicked.
    MRS. ERLYNNE.
(With a slight shudder.)
Hush, last night is quite
over.
    (Enter LORD WINDERMERE.)
    LORD WINDERMERE. Your carriage has not come back yet, Mrs.
Erlynne.
    MRS. ERLYNNE. It makes no matter. I'll take a hansom. There is
nothing in the world so respectable as a good Shrewsbury and
Talbot. And now, dear Lady Windermere, I am afraid it is really
good-bye.
(Moves up C.)
Oh, I remember. You'll think me absurd,
but do you know I've taken a great fancy to this fan that I was
silly enough to run away with last night from your ball. Now, I
wonder would you give it to me? Lord Windermere says you may. I
know it is his present.
    LADY WINDERMERE. Oh, certainly, if it will give you any pleasure.
But it has my name on it. It has 'Margaret' on it.
    MRS. ERLYNNE. But we have the same Christian name.
    LADY WINDERMERE. Oh, I forgot. Of course, do have it. What a
wonderful chance our names being the same!
    MRS. ERLYNNE. Quite wonderful. Thanks—it will always remind me
of you.
(Shakes hands with her.)
    (Enter PARKER.)
    PARKER. Lord Augustus Lorton. Mrs. Erlynne's carriage has come.
    (Enter LORD AUGUSTUS.)
    LORD AUGUSTUS. Good morning, dear boy. Good morning, Lady
Windermere.
(Sees MRS. ERLYNNE.)
Mrs. Erlynne!
    MRS. ERLYNNE. How do you do, Lord Augustus? Are you quite well
this morning?
    LORD AUGUSTUS.
(Coldly.)
Quite well, thank you, Mrs. Erlynne.
    MRS. ERLYNNE. You don't look at all well, Lord Augustus. You stop
up too late—it is so bad for you. You really should take more
care of yourself. Good-bye, Lord Windermere.
(Goes towards door
with a bow to LORD AUGUSTUS. Suddenly smiles and looks back at
him.)
Lord Augustus! Won't you see me to my carriage? You might
carry the fan.
    LORD WINDERMERE. Allow me!
    MRS. ERLYNNE. No; I want Lord Augustus. I have a special message
for the dear Duchess. Won't you carry the fan, Lord Augustus?
    LORD AUGUSTUS. If you really desire it, Mrs. Erlynne.
    MRS. ERLYNNE.
(Laughing.)
Of course I do. You'll carry it so
gracefully. You would carry off anything gracefully, dear Lord
Augustus.
    (When she reaches the door she looks back for a moment at LADY
WINDERMERE. Their eyes meet. Then she turns, and exit C. followed
by LORD AUGUSTUS.)
    LADY WINDERMERE. You will never speak against Mrs. Erlynne again,
Arthur, will you?
    LORD WINDERMERE.
(Gravely.)
She is better than one thought her.
    LADY WINDERMERE. She is better than I am.
    LORD WINDERMERE.
(Smiling as he strokes her hair.)
Child, you and
she belong to different worlds. Into your world evil has never
entered.
    LADY WINDERMERE. Don't say that, Arthur. There is the same world
for all of us, and good and evil, sin and innocence, go through it
hand in hand. To shut one'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.
    LORD WINDERMERE.
(Moves down with her.)
Darling, why do you say
that?
    LADY WINDERMERE.
(Sits on sofa.)
Because I, who had shut my eyes
to life, came to the brink. And one who had separated us -
    LORD WINDERMERE. We were never separated.
    LADY WINDERMERE. We never must be again. O Arthur, don't love me
less, and I will trust you more. I will trust you absolutely. Let
us go to Selby. In the Rose Garden at Selby the roses are white
and red.
    (Enter LORD AUGUSTUS C.)
    LORD AUGUSTUS. Arthur, she has explained everything!
    (LADY WINDERMERE looks horribly frightened at this.