Lady Windermere's Fan
and all that kind of thing. I have no ambition to play the part of a
mother. Only once in my life have I known a mother’s feelings. That was
last night. They were terrible—they made me suffer—they made me suffer
too much. For twenty years, as you say, I have lived childless,—I want
to live childless still. [_Hiding her feelings with a trivial laugh_.]
Besides, my dear Windermere, how on earth could I pose as a mother with a
grown-up daughter? Margaret is twenty-one, and I have never admitted
that I am more than twenty-nine, or thirty at the most. Twenty-nine when
there are pink shades, thirty when there are not. So you see what
difficulties it would involve. No, as far as I am concerned, let your
wife cherish the memory of this dead, stainless mother. Why should I
interfere with her illusions? I find it hard enough to keep my own. I
lost one illusion last night. I thought I had no heart. I find I have,
and a heart doesn’t suit me, Windermere. Somehow it doesn’t go with
modern dress. It makes one look old. [_Takes up hand-mirror from table
and looks into it_.] And it spoils one’s career at critical moments.
LORD WINDERMERE. You fill me with horror—with absolute horror.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [_Rising_.] I suppose, Windermere, you would like me to
retire into a convent, or become a hospital nurse, or something of that
kind, as people do in silly modern novels. That is stupid of you,
Arthur; in real life we don’t do such things—not as long as we have any
good looks left, at any rate. No—what consoles one nowadays is not
repentance, but pleasure. Repentance is quite out of date. And besides,
if a woman really repents, she has to go to a bad dressmaker, otherwise
no one believes in her. And nothing in the world would induce me to do
that. No; I am going to pass entirely out of your two lives. My coming
into them has been a mistake—I discovered that last night.
LORD WINDERMERE. A fatal mistake.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [_Smiling_.] Almost fatal.
LORD WINDERMERE. I am sorry now I did not tell my wife the whole thing
at once.
MRS. ERLYNNE. I regret my bad actions. You regret your good ones—that
is the difference between us.
LORD WINDERMERE. I don’t trust you. I _will_ tell my wife. It’s better
for her to know, and from me. It will cause her infinite pain—it will
humiliate her terribly, but it’s right that she should know.
MRS. ERLYNNE. You propose to tell her?
LORD WINDERMERE. I am going to tell her.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [_Going up to him_.] If you do, I will make my name so
infamous that it will mar every moment of her life. It will ruin her,
and make her wretched. If you dare to tell her, there is no depth of
degradation I will not sink to, no pit of shame I will not enter. You
shall not tell her—I forbid you.
LORD WINDERMERE. Why?
MRS. ERLYNNE. [_After a pause_.] If I said to you that I cared for her,
perhaps loved her even—you would sneer at me, wouldn’t you?
LORD WINDERMERE. I should feel it was not true. A mother’s love means
devotion, unselfishness, sacrifice. What could you know of such things?
MRS. ERLYNNE. You are right. What could I know of such things? Don’t
let us talk any more about it—as for telling my daughter who I am, that I
do not allow. It is my secret, it is not yours. If I make up my mind to
tell her, and I think I will, I shall tell her before I leave the
house—if not, I shall never tell her.
LORD WINDERMERE. [_Angrily_.] Then let me beg of you to leave our house
at once. I will make your excuses to Margaret.
[_Enter_ LADY WINDERMERE _R._ _She goes over to_ MRS. ERLYNNE _with the
photograph in her hand_. LORD WINDERMERE _moves to back of sofa_, _and
anxiously watches_ MRS. ERLYNNE _as the scene progresses_.]
LADY WINDERMERE. I am so sorry, Mrs. Erlynne, to have kept you waiting.
I couldn’t find the photograph anywhere. At last I discovered it in my
husband’s dressing-room—he had stolen it.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [_Takes the photograph from her and looks at it_.] I am
not surprised—it is charming. [_Goes over to sofa with_ LADY WINDERMERE,
_and sits down beside her_. _Looks again at the photograph_.] And so
that is your little boy! What is he called?
LADY WINDERMERE. Gerard, after my dear father.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [_Laying the photograph down_.] Really?
LADY WINDERMERE. Yes. If it had been a girl, I would have called it
after my mother. My mother had the same name as myself, Margaret.
MRS. ERLYNNE. My name is Margaret too.
LADY WINDERMERE. Indeed!
MRS. ERLYNNE. Yes. [_Pause_.] You are devoted to your mother’s memory,
Lady Windermere, your husband tells me.
LADY WINDERMERE. We all have ideals in life. At least we all should
have. Mine is my mother.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Ideals are dangerous things. Realities are better. They
wound, but they’re better.
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Shaking her head_.] If I lost my ideals, I should
lose everything.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Everything?
LADY WINDERMERE. Yes. [_Pause_.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. Did your father often speak to you of your mother?
LADY WINDERMERE. No, it gave him too much pain. He told me how my
mother had died a few months after I was born. His eyes filled with
tears as he spoke. Then he begged me never to mention her name to him
again. It made him suffer even to hear it. My father—my father really
died of a broken heart. His was the most ruined life know.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [_Rising_.] I am afraid I must go now, Lady Windermere.
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Rising_.] Oh no, don’t.
MRS. ERLYNNE. I think I had better. My carriage must have come back by
this time. I sent it to Lady Jedburgh’s with a note.
LADY WINDERMERE. Arthur, would you mind seeing if Mrs. Erlynne’s
carriage has come back?
MRS. ERLYNNE. Pray don’t trouble, Lord Windermere.
LADY WINDERMERE. Yes, Arthur, do go, please.
[LORD WINDERMERE _hesitated for a moment and looks at_ MRS. ERLYNNE.
_She remains quite impassive_. _He leaves the room_.]
[_To_ MRS. ERLYNNE.] Oh! What am I to say to you? You saved me last
night? [_Goes towards her_.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. Hush—don’t speak of it.
LADY WINDERMERE. I must speak of it. I can’t let you think that I am
going to accept this sacrifice. I am not. It is too great. I am going
to tell my husband everything. It is my duty.
MRS. ERLYNNE. It is not your duty—at least you have duties to others
besides him. You say you owe me something?
LADY WINDERMERE. I owe you everything.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Then pay your debt by silence. That is the only way in
which it can be paid. Don’t spoil the one good thing I have done in my
life by telling it to any one. Promise me that what passed last night
will remain a secret between us. You must not bring misery into your
husband’s life. Why spoil his love? You must not spoil it. Love is
easily killed. Oh! how easily love is killed. Pledge me your word, Lady
Windermere, that you will never tell him. I insist upon it.
LADY WINDERMERE. [_With bowed head_.] It is your will, not mine.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Yes, it is my will. And never forget your child—I like to
think of you as a mother. I like you to think of yourself as one.
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Looking up_.] I always will now. Only once in my
life I have forgotten my own mother—that was last night. Oh, if I had
remembered her I should not have been so foolish, so wicked.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [_With a slight shudder_.] Hush, last night is quite
over.
[_Enter_ LORD WINDERMERE.]
LORD WINDERMERE. Your carriage has not come back yet, Mrs. Erlynne.
MRS. ERLYNNE. It makes no matter. I’ll take a hansom. There is nothing
in the world so respectable as a good Shrewsbury and Talbot. And now,
dear Lady Windermere, I am afraid it is really good-bye. [_Moves up C._]
Oh, I remember. You’ll think me absurd, but do you know I’ve taken a
great fancy to this fan that I was silly enough to run away with last
night from your ball. Now, I wonder would you give it to me? Lord
Windermere says you may. I know it is his present.
LADY WINDERMERE. Oh, certainly, if it will give you any pleasure. But
it has my name on it. It has ‘Margaret’ on it.
MRS. ERLYNNE. But we have the same Christian name.
LADY WINDERMERE. Oh, I forgot. Of course, do have it. What a wonderful
chance our names being the same!
MRS. ERLYNNE. Quite wonderful. Thanks—it will always remind me of you.
[_Shakes hands with her_.]
[_Enter_ PARKER.]
PARKER. Lord Augustus Lorton. Mrs. Erlynne’s carriage has come.
[_Enter_ LORD AUGUSTUS.]
LORD AUGUSTUS. Good morning, dear boy. Good morning, Lady Windermere.
[_Sees_ MRS. ERLYNNE.] Mrs. Erlynne!
MRS. ERLYNNE. How do you do, Lord Augustus? Are you quite well this
morning?
LORD AUGUSTUS. [_Coldly_.] Quite well, thank you, Mrs. Erlynne.
MRS. ERLYNNE. You don’t look at all well, Lord Augustus. You stop up
too late—it is so bad for you. You really should take more care of
yourself. Good-bye, Lord Windermere. [_Goes towards door with a bow to_
LORD AUGUSTUS. _Suddenly smiles and looks back at him_.] Lord Augustus!
Won’t you see me to my carriage? You might carry the fan.
LORD WINDERMERE. Allow me!
MRS. ERLYNNE. No; I want Lord Augustus. I have a special message for
the dear Duchess. Won’t you carry the fan, Lord Augustus?
LORD AUGUSTUS. If you really desire it, Mrs. Erlynne.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [_Laughing_.] Of course I do. You’ll carry it so
gracefully. You would carry off anything gracefully, dear Lord Augustus.
[_When she reaches the door she looks back for a moment at_ LADY
WINDERMERE. _Their eyes meet_. _Then she turns_, _and exit C. followed
by_ LORD AUGUSTUS.]
LADY WINDERMERE. You will never speak against Mrs. Erlynne again,
Arthur, will you?
LORD WINDERMERE. [_Gravely_.] She is better than one thought her.
LADY WINDERMERE. She is better than I am.
LORD WINDERMERE. [_Smiling as he strokes her hair_.] Child, you and she
belong to different worlds. Into your world evil has never entered.
LADY WINDERMERE. Don’t say that, Arthur. There is the same world for
all of us, and good and evil, sin and innocence, go through it hand in
hand. To shut one’s eyes to half of life that one may live securely is
as though one blinded oneself that one might walk with more safety in a
land of pit and precipice.
LORD WINDERMERE. [_Moves down with her_.] Darling, why do you say that?
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Sits on sofa_.] Because I, who had shut my eyes to
life, came to the brink. And one who had separated us—
LORD WINDERMERE. We were never separated.
LADY WINDERMERE. We never must be again. O Arthur, don’t love me less,
and I will trust you more. I will trust you absolutely. Let us go to
Selby. In the Rose Garden at Selby the roses are white and red.
[_Enter_ LORD AUGUSTUS _C._]
LORD AUGUSTUS. Arthur, she has explained everything!
[LADY WINDERMERE _looks horribly frightened at this_. LORD WINDERMERE
_starts_. LORD AUGUSTUS _takes_ WINDERMERE _by the arm and brings him to
front of stage_. _He talks rapidly and in a low voice_. LADY WINDERMERE
_stands watching them in terror_.] My dear fellow, she has explained
every demmed thing. We all wronged her immensely. It was entirely for
my sake she went to Darlington’s rooms. Called first at the Club—fact
is, wanted to put me out of suspense—and being told I had gone
on—followed—naturally frightened when she heard a lot of us coming
in—retired to another room—I assure you, most gratifying to me, the whole
thing. We all behaved brutally to her. She is just the woman for me.
Suits me down to the ground. All the conditions she makes are that we
live entirely out of England. A very good thing too. Demmed clubs,
demmed climate, demmed cooks, demmed everything. Sick of it all!