Sir Robert Chiltern (in a low voice) I will give you any sum of money you want.

Mrs Cheveley Even you are not rich enough, Sir Robert, to buy back your past. No man is.

Sir Robert Chiltern I will not do what you ask me. I will not.

Mrs Cheveley You have to. If you don’t… (Rises from the sofa)

Sir Robert Chiltern (bewildered and unnerved) Wait a moment! What did you propose? You said that you would give me back my letter, didn’t you?

Mrs Cheveley Yes. That is agreed. I will be in the Ladies’ Gallery° tomorrow night at half-past eleven. If by that time—and you will have had heaps of opportunity—you have made an announcement to the House in the terms I wish, I shall hand you back your letter with the prettiest thanks, and the best, or at any rate the most suitable, compliment I can think of. I intend to play quite fairly with you. One should always play fairly… when one has the winning cards. The Baron taught me that… amongst other things.

Sir Robert Chiltern You must let me have time to consider your proposal.

Mrs Cheveley No; you must settle now!

Sir Robert Chiltern Give me a week—three days!

Mrs Cheveley Impossible! I have got to telegraph to Vienna tonight.

Sir Robert Chiltern My God! what brought you into my life?

Mrs Cheveley Circumstances.

Moves towards the door

Sir Robert Chiltern Don’t go. I consent. The report shall be withdrawn. I will arrange for a question° to be put to me on the subject.

Mrs Cheveley Thank you. I knew we should come to an amicable agreement. I understood your nature from the first. I analysed you, though you did not adore me. And now you can get my carriage for me, Sir Robert. I see the people coming up from supper, and English men always get romantic after a meal, and that bores me dreadfully.

Exit Sir Robert Chiltern. Enter Lady Chiltern, Lady Markby, Lord Caversham, Lady Basildon, Mrs Marchmont, Vicomte de Nanjac, Mr Montford [and other guests]

Lady Markby Well, dear Mrs Cheveley, I hope you have enjoyed yourself. Sir Robert is very entertaining, is he not?

Mrs Cheveley Most entertaining! I have enjoyed my talk with him immensely.

Lady Markby He has had a very interesting and brilliant career. And he has married a most admirable wife. Lady Chiltern is a woman of the very highest principles, I am glad to say. I am a little too old now, myself, to trouble about setting a good example, but I always admire people who do. And Lady Chiltern has a very ennobling effect on life, though her dinner-parties are rather dull sometimes. But one can’t have everything, can one? And now I must go, dear. Shall I call for you tomorrow?

Mrs Cheveley Thanks.

Lady Markby We might drive in the Park° at five. Everything looks so fresh in the Park now!