Oscar Wilde: The Complete Works. Knowledge house
am so sorry but I am obliged to. I am just ·99· off to rehearsal. I have got to stand on my head in some tableaux.
lady markby
On your head, child? Oh! I hope not. I believe it is most unhealthy. [Takes a seat on the sofa next Lady Chiltern.]
mabel chiltern
But it is for an excellent charity: in aid of the Undeserving, the only people I am really interested in. I am the secretary, and Tommy Trafford is treasurer.
mrs. cheveley
And what is Lord Goring?
mabel chiltern
Oh! Lord Goring is president.
mrs. cheveley
The post should suit him admirably, unless he has deteriorated since I knew him first.
lady markby
[Reflecting]. [E: [Reflecting.]] You are remarkably modern, Mabel. A little too modern, perhaps. Nothing is so dangerous as being too modern. One is apt to grow ·100· old-fashioned quite suddenly. I have known many instances of it.
mabel chiltern
What a dreadful prospect!
lady markby
Ah! my dear, you need not be nervous. You will always be as pretty as possible. That is the best fashion there is, and the only fashion that England succeeds in setting.
mabel chiltern
[With a curtsey.] Thank you so much, Lady Markby, for England … and myself. [Goes out.]
lady markby
[Turning to Lady Chiltern.] Dear Gertrude, we just called to know if Mrs. Cheveley’s diamond brooch has been found.
lady chiltern
Here?
mrs. cheveley
Yes. I missed it when I got back to Claridge’s, and I thought I might possibly have dropped it here.
·101· lady chiltern
I have heard nothing about it. But I will send for the butler and ask. [Touches the bell.]
mrs. cheveley
Oh, pray don’t trouble, Lady Chiltern. I daresay I lost it at the Opera, before we came on here.
lady markby
Ah yes, I suppose it must have been at the Opera. The fact is, we all scramble and jostle so much nowadays that I wonder we have anything at all left on us at the end of an evening. I know myself that, when I am coming back from the Drawing Room, I always feel as if I hadn’t a shred on me, except a small shred of decent reputation, just enough to prevent the lower classes making painful observations through the windows of the carriage. The fact is that our Society is terribly overpopulated. Really, some one should arrange a proper scheme of assisted emigration. It would do a great deal of good.
mrs. cheveley
I quite agree with you, Lady Markby. It is nearly six years since I have been in London for the season, and I must say Society has become dreadfully mixed. One sees the oddest people everywhere.
·102· lady markby
That is quite true, dear. But one needn’t know them. I’m sure I don’t know half the people who come to my house. Indeed, from all I hear, I shouldn’t like to.
[Enter Mason.]
lady chiltern
What sort of a brooch was it that you lost, Mrs. Cheveley?
mrs. cheveley
A diamond snake-brooch with a ruby, a rather large ruby.
lady markby
I thought you said there was a sapphire on the head, dear?
mrs. cheveley
[Smiling.] No, Lady Markby—a ruby.
lady markby
[Nodding her head.] And very becoming, I am quite sure.
lady chiltern
Has a ruby and diamond brooch been found in any of the rooms this morning, Mason?
·103· mason
No, my lady.
mrs. cheveley
It really is of no consequence, Lady Chiltern. I am so sorry to have put you to any inconvenience.
lady chiltern
[Coldly.] Oh, it has been no inconvenience. That will do, Mason. You can bring tea.
[Exit Mason.]
lady markby
Well, I must say it is most annoying to lose anything. I remember once at Bath, years ago, losing in the Pump Room an exceedingly handsome cameo bracelet that Sir John had given me. I don’t think he has ever given me anything since, I am sorry to say. He has sadly degenerated. Really, this horrid House of Commons quite ruins our husbands for us. I think the Lower House by far the greatest blow to a happy married life that there has been since that terrible thing called the Higher Education of Women was invented.
lady chiltern
Ah! it is heresy to say that in this house, Lady Markby. Robert is a great champion of the Higher Education of Women, and so, I am afraid, am I.
·104· mrs. cheveley
The higher education of men is what I should like to see. Men need it so sadly.
lady markby
They do, dear. But I am afraid such a scheme would be quite unpractical. I don’t think man has much capacity for development. He has got as far as he can, and that is not far, is it? With regard to women, well, dear Gertrude, you belong to the younger generation, and I am sure it is all right if you approve of it. In my time, of course, we were taught not to understand anything. That was the old system, and wonderfully interesting it was. I assure you that the amount of things I and my poor dear sister were taught not to understand was quite extraordinary. But modern women understand everything, I am told.
mrs. cheveley
Except their husbands. That is the one thing the modern woman never understands.
lady markby
And a very good thing too, dear, I daresay. It might break up many a happy home if they did. Not yours, I need hardly say, Gertrude. You have married a pattern husband. I wish I could say as much for myself. But since Sir John has taken to attending the debates regularly, which he never used ·105· to do in the good old days, his language has become quite impossible. He always seems to think that he is addressing the House, and consequently whenever he discusses the state of the agricultural labourer, or the Welsh Church, or something quite improper of that kind, I am obliged to send all the servants out of the room. It is not pleasant to see one’s own butler, who has been with one for twenty-three years, actually blushing at the sideboard, and the footmen making contortions in corners like persons in circuses. I assure you my life will be quite ruined unless they send John at once to the Upper House. He won’t take any interest in politics then, will he? The House of Lords is so sensible. An assembly of gentlemen. But in his present state, Sir John is really a great trial. Why, this morning before breakfast was half over, he stood up on the hearthrug, put his hands in his pockets, and appealed to the country at the top of his voice. I left the table as soon as I had my second cup of tea, I need hardly say. But his violent language could be heard all over the house! I trust, Gertrude, that Sir Robert is not like that?
lady chiltern
But I am very much interested in politics, Lady Markby. I love to hear Robert talk about them.
lady