An Ideal Husband, Oscar Wilde [free ebook reader TXT] 📗

hear she

went to the Opera on Monday night, and told Tommy Rufford at supper

that, as far as she could see, London Society was entirely made up of

dowdies and dandies.

 

LORD GORING. She is quite right, too. The men are all dowdies and

the women are all dandies, aren’t they?

 

MRS. MARCHMONT. [After a pause.] Oh! do you really think that is

what Mrs. Cheveley meant?

 

LORD GORING. Of course. And a very sensible remark for Mrs.

Cheveley to make, too.

 

[Enter MABEL CHILTERN. She joins the group.]

 

MABEL CHILTERN. Why are you talking about Mrs. Cheveley? Everybody

is talking about Mrs. Cheveley! Lord Goring says - what did you say,

Lord Goring, about Mrs. Cheveley? Oh! I remember, that she was a

genius in the daytime and a beauty at night.

 

LADY BASILDON. What a horrid combination! So very unnatural!

 

MRS. MARCHMONT. [In her most dreamy manner.] I like looking at

geniuses, and listening to beautiful people.

 

LORD GORING. Ah! that is morbid of you, Mrs. Marchmont!

 

MRS. MARCHMONT. [Brightening to a look of real pleasure.] I am so

glad to hear you say that. Marchmont and I have been married for

seven years, and he has never once told me that I was morbid. Men

are so painfully unobservant!

 

LADY BASILDON. [Turning to her.] I have always said, dear Margaret,

that you were the most morbid person in London.

 

MRS. MARCHMONT. Ah! but you are always sympathetic, Olivia!

 

MABEL CHILTERN. Is it morbid to have a desire for food? I have a

great desire for food. Lord Goring, will you give me some supper?

 

LORD GORING. With pleasure, Miss Mabel. [Moves away with her.]

 

MABEL CHILTERN. How horrid you have been! You have never talked to

me the whole evening!

 

LORD GORING. How could I? You went away with the child-diplomatist.

 

MABEL CHILTERN. You might have followed us. Pursuit would have been

only polite. I don’t think I like you at all this evening!

 

LORD GORING. I like you immensely.

 

MABEL CHILTERN. Well, I wish you’d show it in a more marked way!

[They go downstairs.]

 

MRS. MARCHMONT. Olivia, I have a curious feeling of absolute

faintness. I think I should like some supper very much. I know I

should like some supper.

 

LADY BASILDON. I am positively dying for supper, Margaret!

 

MRS. MARCHMONT. Men are so horribly selfish, they never think of

these things.

 

LADY BASILDON. Men are grossly material, grossly material!

 

[The VICOMTE DE NANJAC enters from the music-room with some other

guests. After having carefully examined all the people present, he

approaches LADY BASILDON.]

 

VICOMTE DE NANJAC. May I have the honour of taking you down to

supper, Comtesse?

 

LADY BASILDON. [Coldly.] I never take supper, thank you, Vicomte.

[The VICOMTE is about to retire. LADY BASILDON, seeing this, rises

at once and takes his arm.] But I will come down with you with

pleasure.

 

VICOMTE DE NANJAC. I am so fond of eating! I am very English in all

my tastes.

 

LADY BASILDON. You look quite English, Vicomte, quite English.

 

[They pass out. MR. MONTFORD, a perfectly groomed young dandy,

approaches MRS. MARCHMONT.]

 

MR. MONTFORD. Like some supper, Mrs. Marchmont?

 

MRS. MARCHMONT. [Languidly.] Thank you, Mr. Montford, I never touch

supper. [Rises hastily and takes his arm.] But I will sit beside

you, and watch you.

 

MR. MONTFORD. I don’t know that I like being watched when I am

eating!

 

MRS. MARCHMONT. Then I will watch some one else.

 

MR. MONTFORD. I don’t know that I should like that either.

 

MRS. MARCHMONT. [Severely.] Pray, Mr. Montford, do not make these

painful scenes of jealousy in public!

 

[They go downstairs with the other guests, passing SIR ROBERT

CHILTERN and MRS. CHEVELEY, who now enter.]

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. And are you going to any of our country houses

before you leave England, Mrs. Cheveley?

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. Oh, no! I can’t stand your English house-parties.

In England people actually try to be brilliant at breakfast. That is

so dreadful of them! Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.

And then the family skeleton is always reading family prayers. My

stay in England really depends on you, Sir Robert. [Sits down on the

sofa.]

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Taking a seat beside her.] Seriously?

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. Quite seriously. I want to talk to you about a great

political and financial scheme, about this Argentine Canal Company,

in fact.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. What a tedious, practical subject for you to

talk about, Mrs. Cheveley!

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. Oh, I like tedious, practical subjects. What I don’t

like are tedious, practical people. There is a wide difference.

Besides, you are interested, I know, in International Canal schemes.

You were Lord Radley’s secretary, weren’t you, when the Government

bought the Suez Canal shares?

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Yes. But the Suez Canal was a very great and

splendid undertaking. It gave us our direct route to India. It had

imperial value. It was necessary that we should have control. This

Argentine scheme is a commonplace Stock Exchange swindle.

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. A speculation, Sir Robert! A brilliant, daring

speculation.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Believe me, Mrs. Cheveley, it is a swindle.

Let us call things by their proper names. It makes matters simpler.

We have all the information about it at the Foreign Office. In fact,

I sent out a special Commission to inquire into the matter privately,

and they report that the works are hardly begun, and as for the money

already subscribed, no one seems to know what has become of it. The

whole thing is a second Panama, and with not a quarter of the chance

of success that miserable affair ever had. I hope you have not

invested in it. I am sure you are far too clever to have done that.

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. I have invested very largely in it.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Who could have advised you to do such a foolish

thing?

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. Your old friend - and mine.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Who?

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. Baron Arnheim.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Frowning.] Ah! yes. I remember hearing, at

the time of his death, that he had been mixed up in the whole affair.

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. It was his last romance. His last but one, to do him

justice.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Rising.] But you have not seen my Corots yet.

They are in the music-room. Corots seem to go with music, don’t

they? May I show them to you?

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. [Shaking her head.] I am not in a mood to-night for

silver twilights, or rose-pink dawns. I want to talk business.

[Motions to him with her fan to sit down again beside her.]

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I fear I have no advice to give you, Mrs.

Cheveley, except to interest yourself in something less dangerous.

The success of the Canal depends, of course, on the attitude of

England, and I am going to lay the report of the Commissioners before

the House to-morrow night.

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. That you must not do. In your own interests, Sir

Robert, to say nothing of mine, you must not do that.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Looking at her in wonder.] In my own

interests? My dear Mrs. Cheveley, what do you mean? [Sits down

beside her.]

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. Sir Robert, I will be quite frank with you. I want

you to withdraw the report that you had intended to lay before the

House, on the ground that you have reasons to believe that the

Commissioners have been prejudiced or misinformed, or something.

Then I want you to say a few words to the effect that the Government

is going to reconsider the question, and that you have reason to

believe that the Canal, if completed, will be of great international

value. You know the sort of things ministers say in cases of this

kind. A few ordinary platitudes will do. In modern life nothing

produces such an effect as a good platitude. It makes the whole

world kin. Will you do that for me?

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Mrs. Cheveley, you cannot be serious in making

me such a proposition!

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. I am quite serious.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Coldly.] Pray allow me to believe that you

are not.

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. [Speaking with great deliberation and emphasis.] Ah!

but I am. And if you do what I ask you, I … will pay you very

handsomely!

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Pay me!

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. Yes.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I am afraid I don’t quite understand what you

mean.

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. [Leaning back on the sofa and looking at him.] How

very disappointing! And I have come all the way from Vienna in order

that you should thoroughly understand me.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I fear I don’t.

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. [In her most nonchalant manner.] My dear Sir Robert,

you are a man of the world, and you have your price, I suppose.

Everybody has nowadays. The drawback is that most people are so

dreadfully expensive. I know I am. I hope you will be more

reasonable in your terms.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Rises indignantly.] If you will allow me, I

will call your carriage for you. You have lived so long abroad, Mrs.

Cheveley, that you seem to be unable to realise that you are talking

to an English gentleman.

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. [Detains him by touching his arm with her fan, and

keeping it there while she is talking.] I realise that I am talking

to a man who laid the foundation of his fortune by selling to a Stock

Exchange speculator a Cabinet secret.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Biting his lip.] What do you mean?

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. [Rising and facing him.] I mean that I know the real

origin of your wealth and your career, and I have got your letter,

too.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. What letter?

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. [Contemptuously.] The letter you wrote to Baron

Arnheim, when you were Lord Radley’s secretary, telling the Baron to

buy Suez Canal shares - a letter written three days before the

Government announced its own purchase.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Hoarsely.] It is not true.

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. You thought that letter had been destroyed. How

foolish of you! It is in my possession.

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. The affair to which you allude was no more than

a speculation. The House of Commons had not yet passed the bill; it

might have been rejected.

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. It was a swindle, Sir Robert. Let us call things by

their proper names. It makes everything simpler. And now I am going

to sell you that letter, and the price I ask for it is your public

support of the Argentine scheme. You made your own fortune out of

one canal. You must help me and my friends to make our fortunes out

of another!

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. It is infamous, what you propose - infamous!

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. Oh, no! This is the game of life as we all have to

play it, Sir Robert, sooner or later!

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I cannot do what you ask me.

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. You mean you cannot help doing it. You know you are

standing on the edge of a precipice. And it is not for you to make

terms. It is for you to accept them. Supposing you refuse -

 

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. What then?

 

MRS. CHEVELEY. My dear Sir Robert, what then? You are ruined, that

is all! Remember to what a point your Puritanism in England has

brought you. In old days nobody pretended to be a bit