Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde Read Free Book Online Page A

your
life or his—oh! died, gladly died!
(Moves away to sofa R.)
    LADY WINDERMERE. You talk as if you had a heart. Women like you
have no hearts. Heart is not in you. You are bought and sold.
(Sits L.C.)
    MRS. ERLYNNE.
(Starts, with a gesture of pain. Then restrains
herself, and comes over to where LADY WINDERMERE is sitting. As
she speaks, she stretches out her hands towards her, but does not
dare to touch her.)
Believe what you choose about me. I am not
worth a moment's sorrow. But don't spoil your beautiful young life
on my account! You don't know what may be in store for you, unless
you leave this house at once. You don't know what it is to fall
into the pit, to be despised, mocked, abandoned, sneered at—to be
an outcast! to find the door shut against one, to have to creep in
by hideous byways, afraid every moment lest the mask should be
stripped from one's face, and all the while to hear the laughter,
the horrible laughter of the world, a thing more tragic than all
the tears the world has ever shed. You don't know what it is. One
pays for one's sin, and then one pays again, and all one's life one
pays. You must never know that.—As for me, if suffering be an
expiation, then at this moment I have expiated all my faults,
whatever they have been; for to-night you have made a heart in one
who had it not, made it and broken it.—But let that pass. I may
have wrecked my own life, but I will not let you wreck yours. You-
-why, you are a mere girl, you would be lost. You haven't got the
kind of brains that enables a woman to get back. You have neither
the wit nor the courage. You couldn't stand dishonour! No! Go
back, Lady Windermere, to the husband who loves you, whom you love.
You have a child, Lady Windermere. Go back to that child who even
now, in pain or in joy, may be calling to you.
(LADY WINDERMERE
rises.)
God gave you that child. He will require from you that
you make his life fine, that you watch over him. What answer will
you make to God if his life is ruined through you? Back to your
house, Lady Windermere—your husband loves you! He has never
swerved for a moment from the love he bears you. But even if he
had a thousand loves, you must stay with your child. If he was
harsh to you, you must stay with your child. If he ill-treated
you, you must stay with your child. If he abandoned you, your
place is with your child.
    (LADY WINDERMERE bursts into tears and buries her face in her
hands.)
    (Rushing to her.)
Lady Windermere!
    LADY WINDERMERE.
(Holding out her hands to her, helplessly, as a
child might do.)
Take me home. Take me home.
    MRS. ERLYNNE.
(Is about to embrace her. Then restrains herself.
There is a look of wonderful joy in her face.)
Come! Where is
your cloak?
(Getting it from sofa.)
Here. Put it on. Come at
once!
    (They go to the door.)
    LADY WINDERMERE. Stop! Don't you hear voices?
    MRS. ERLYNNE. No, no! There was no one!
    LADY WINDERMERE. Yes, there is! Listen! Oh! that is my husband's
voice! He is coming in! Save me! Oh, it's some plot! You have
sent for him.
    (Voices outside.)
    MRS. ERLYNNE. Silence! I'm here to save you, if I can. But I
fear it is too late! There!
(Points to the curtain across the
window.)
The first chance you have, slip out, if you ever get a
chance!
    LADY WINDERMERE. But you?
    MRS. ERLYNNE. Oh! never mind me. I'll face them.
    (LADY WINDERMERE hides herself behind the curtain.)
    LORD AUGUSTUS.
(Outside.)
Nonsense, dear Windermere, you must not
leave me!
    MRS. ERLYNNE. Lord Augustus! Then it is I who am lost!
(Hesitates for a moment, then looks round and sees door R., and
exits through it.)
    (Enter LORD DARLINGTON, MR. DUMBY, LORD WINDERMERE, LORD AUGUSTUS
LORTON, and MR. CECIL GRAHAM.)
    DUMBY. What a nuisance their turning us out of the club at this
hour! It's only two o'clock.
(Sinks into a chair.)
The lively
part of the evening is only just beginning.
(Yawns and closes his
eyes.)
    LORD WINDERMERE. It is very good of you, Lord Darlington, allowing
Augustus to force our company on