Lord Goring Will you excuse me for a moment, Robert? I want to give some directions° to my servant.

Sir Robert Chiltern Certainly.

Lord Goring When that lady calls, tell her that I am not expected home this evening. Tell her that I have been suddenly called out of town. You understand?

Phipps The lady is in that room, my lord. You told me to show her into that room, my lord.

Lord Goring You did perfectly right.

Exit Phipps

What a mess I am in.° No; I think I shall get through it. I’ll give her a lecture through the door. Awkward thing to manage, though.

Sir Robert Chiltern Arthur, tell me what I should do. My life seems to have crumbled about me. I am a ship without a rudder in a night without a star.

Lord Goring Robert, you love your wife, don’t you?

Sir Robert Chiltern I love her more than anything in the world. I used to think ambition the great thing. It is not. Love is the great thing in the world. There is nothing but love, and I love her. But I am defamed in her eyes. I am ignoble in her eyes. There is a wide gulf between us now. She has found me out, Arthur, she has found me out.

Lord Goring Has she never in her life done some folly—some indiscretion—that she should not forgive your sin?

Sir Robert Chiltern My wife! Never! She does not know what weakness or temptation is. I am of clay like other men. She stands apart as good women do—pitiless in her perfection—cold and stern and without mercy. But I love her, Arthur. We are childless, and I have no one else to love, no one else to love me. Perhaps if God had sent us children she might have been kinder to me. But God has given us a lonely house. And she has cut my heart in two. Don’t let us talk of it. I was brutal to her this evening. But I suppose when sinners talk to saints they are brutal always. I said to her things that were hideously true, on my side, from my standpoint, from the standpoint of men. But don’t let us talk of that.

Lord Goring Your wife will forgive you. Perhaps at this moment she is forgiving you. She loves you, Robert. Why should she not forgive?

Sir Robert Chiltern God grant it! God grant it! (Buries his face in his hands) But there is something more I have to tell you, Arthur.

Enter Phipps with drinks

Phipps (hands hock and seltzer to Sir Robert Chiltern) Hock and seltzer, sir.

Sir Robert Chiltern Thank you.

Lord Goring Is your carriage here, Robert?

Sir Robert Chiltern No; I walked from the club.

Lord Goring Sir Robert will take my cab, Phipps.

Phipps Yes, my lord.