GERALD. From whom?
HESTER. He has insulted me! Horribly insulted me! Save me!

GERALD. Who? Who has dared - ?
[LORD ILLINGWORTH enters at back of stage. HESTER breaks from

GERALD'S arms and points to him.]
GERALD [He is quite beside himself with rage and indignation.]

Lord Illingworth, you have insulted the purest thing on God's
earth, a thing as pure as my own mother. You have insulted the

woman I love most in the world with my own mother. As there is a
God in Heaven, I will kill you!

MRS. ARBUTHNOT. [Rushing across and catching hold of him] No! no!
GERALD. [Thrusting her back.] Don't hold me, mother. Don't hold

me - I'll kill him!
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Gerald!

GERALD. Let me go, I say!
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Stop, Gerald, stop! He is your own father!

[GERALD clutches his mother's hands and looks into her face. She
sinks slowly on the ground in shame. HESTER steals towards the

door. LORD ILLINGWORTH frowns and bites his lip. After a time
GERALD raises his mother up, puts his am round her, and leads her

from the room.]
ACT DROP

FOURTH ACT
SCENE

Sitting-room at Mrs. Arbuthnot's. Large open French window at
back, looking on to garden. Doors R.C. and L.C.

[GERALD ARBUTHNOT writing at table.]
[Enter ALICE R.C. followed by LADY HUNSTANTON and MRS. ALLONBY.]

ALICE. Lady Hunstanton and Mrs. Allonby.
[Exit L.C.]

LADY HUNSTANTON. Good morning, Gerald.
GERALD. [Rising.] Good morning, Lady Hunstanton. Good morning,

Mrs. Allonby.
LADY HUNSTANTON. [Sitting down.] We came to inquire for your dear

mother, Gerald. I hope she is better?
GERALD. My mother has not come down yet, Lady Hunstanton.

LADY HUNSTANTON. Ah, I am afraid the heat was too much for her
last night. I think there must have been thunder in the air. Or

perhaps it was the music. Music makes one feel so romantic - at
least it always gets on one's nerves.

MRS. ALLONBY. It's the same thing, nowadays.
LADY HUNSTANTON. I am so glad I don't know what you mean, dear. I

am afraid you mean something wrong. Ah, I see you're examining
Mrs. Arbuthnot's pretty room. Isn't it nice and old-fashioned?

MRS. ALLONBY. [Surveying the room through her lorgnette.] It
looks quite the happy English home.

LADY HUNSTANTON. That's just the word, dear; that just describes
it. One feels your mother's good influence in everything she has

about her, Gerald.
MRS. ALLONBY. Lord Illingworth says that all influence is bad, but

that a good influence is the worst in the world.
LADY HUNSTANTON. When Lord Illingworth knows Mrs. Arbuthnot better

he will change his mind. I must certainly bring him here.
MRS. ALLONBY. I should like to see Lord Illingworth in a happy

English home.
LADY HUNSTANTON. It would do him a great deal of good, dear. Most

women in London, nowadays, seem to furnish their rooms with nothing
but orchids, foreigners, and French novels. But here we have the

room of a sweet saint. Fresh natural flowers, books that don't
shock one, pictures that one can look at without blushing.

MRS. ALLONBY. But I like blushing.
LADY HUNSTANTON. Well, there IS a good deal to be said for

blushing, if one can do it at the proper moment. Poor dear
Hunstanton used to tell me I didn't blush nearly often enough. But

then he was so very particular. He wouldn't let me know any of his
men friends, except those who were over seventy, like poor Lord

Ashton: who afterwards, by the way, was brought into the Divorce
Court. A most unfortunate case.

MRS. ALLONBY. I delight in men over seventy. They always offer
one the devotion of a lifetime. I think seventy an ideal age for a

man.
LADY HUNSTANTON. She is quite incorrigible, Gerald, isn't she?

By-the-by, Gerald, I hope your dear mother will come and see me
more often now. You and Lord Illingworth start almost immediately,

don't you?
GERALD. I have given up my intention of being Lord Illingworth's

secretary.
LADY HUNSTANTON. Surely not, Gerald! It would be most unwise of

you. What reason can you have?
GERALD. I don't think I should be suitable for the post.

MRS. ALLONBY. I wish Lord Illingworth would ask me to be his
secretary. But he says I am not serious enough.

LADY HUNSTANTON. My dear, you really mustn't talk like that in
this house. Mrs. Arbuthnot doesn't know anything about the wicked

society in which we all live. She won't go into it. She is far
too good. I consider it was a great honour her coming to me last

night. It gave quite an atmosphere of respectability to the party.
MRS. ALLONBY. Ah, that must have been what you thought was thunder

in the air.
LADY HUNSTANTON. My dear, how can you say that? There is no

resemblance between the two things at all. But really, Gerald,
what do you mean by not being suitable?

GERALD. Lord Illingworth's views of life and mine are too
different.

LADY HUNSTANTON. But, my dear Gerald, at your age you shouldn't
have any views of life. They are quite out of place. You must be

guided by others in this matter. Lord Illingworth has made you the
most flattering offer, and travelling with him you would see the

world - as much of it, at least, as one should look at - under the
best auspices possible, and stay with all the right people, which

is so important at this solemn moment in your career.
GERALD. I don't want to see the world: I've seen enough of it.

MRS. ALLONBY. I hope you don't think you have exhausted life, Mr.
Arbuthnot. When a man says that, one knows that life has exhausted

him.
GERALD. I don't wish to leave my mother.

LADY HUNSTANTON. Now, Gerald, that is pure laziness on your part.
Not leave your mother! If I were your mother I would insist on

your going.
[Enter ALICE L.C.]

ALICE. Mrs. Arbuthnot's compliments, my lady, but she has a bad
headache, and cannot see any one this morning. [Exit R.C.]

LADY HUNSTANTON. [Rising.] A bad headache! I am so sorry!
Perhaps you'll bring her up to Hunstanton this afternoon, if she is

better, Gerald.
GERALD. I am afraid not this afternoon, Lady Hunstanton.

LADY HUNSTANTON. Well, to-morrow, then. Ah, if you had a father,
Gerald, he wouldn't let you waste your life here. He would send

you off with Lord Illingworth at once. But mothers are so weak.
They give up to their sons in everything. We are all heart, all

heart. Come, dear, I must call at the rectory and inquire for Mrs.
Daubeny, who, I am afraid, is far from well. It is wonderful how

the Archdeacon bears up, quite wonderful. He is the most
sympathetic of husbands. Quite a model. Good-bye, Gerald, give my

fondest love to your mother.
MRS. ALLONBY. Good-bye, Mr. Arbuthnot.

GERALD. Good-bye.
[Exit LADY HUNSTANTON and MRS. ALLONBY. GERALD sits down and reads

over his letter.]
GERALD. What name can I sign? I, who have no right to any name.

[Signs name, puts letter into envelope, addresses it, and is about
to seal it, when door L.C. opens and MRS. ARBUTHNOT enters. GERALD

lays down sealing-wax. Mother and son look at each other.]
LADY HUNSTANTON. [Through French window at the back.] Good-bye

again, Gerald. We are taking the short cut across your pretty
garden. Now, remember my advice to you - start at once with Lord

Illingworth.
MRS. ALLONBY. AU REVOIR, Mr. Arbuthnot. Mind you bring me back

something nice from your travels - not an Indian shawl - on no
account an Indian shawl.

[Exeunt.]
GERALD. Mother, I have just written to him.

MRS. ARBUTHNOT. To whom?
GERALD. To my father. I have written to tell him to come here at

four o'clock this afternoon.
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. He shall not come here. He shall not cross the

threshold of my house.
GERALD. He must come.

MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Gerald, if you are going away with Lord
Illingworth, go at once. Go before it kills me: but don't ask me

to meet him.
GERALD. Mother, you don't understand. Nothing in the world would

induce me to go away with Lord Illingworth, or to leave you.
Surely you know me well enough for that. No: I have written to him

to say -
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. What can you have to say to him?

GERALD. Can't you guess, mother, what I have written in this
letter?

MRS. ARBUTHNOT. No.
GERALD. Mother, surely you can. Think, think what must be done,

now, at once, within the next few days.
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. There is nothing to be done.

GERALD. I have written to Lord Illingworth to tell him that he
must marry you.

MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Marry me?
GERALD. Mother, I will force him to do it. The wrong that has

been done you must be repaired. Atonement must be made. Justice
may be slow, mother, but it comes in the end. In a few days you

shall be Lord Illingworth's lawful wife.
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. But, Gerald -

GERALD. I will insist upon his doing it. I will make him do it:
he will not dare to refuse.

MRS. ARBUTHNOT. But, Gerald, it is I who refuse. I will not marry
Lord Illingworth.

GERALD. Not marry him? Mother!
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. I will not marry him.

GERALD. But you don't understand: it is for your sake I am
talking, not for mine. This marriage, this necessary marriage,

this marriage which for obvious reasons must inevitably take place,
will not help me, will not give me a name that will be really,

rightly mine to bear. But surely it will be something for you,
that you, my mother, should, however late, become the wife of the

man who is my father. Will not that be something?
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. I will not marry him.

GERALD. Mother, you must.
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. I will not. You talk of atonement for a wrong

done. What atonement can be made to me? There is no atonement
possible. I am disgraced: he is not. That is all. It is the

usual history of a man and a woman as it usually happens, as it
always happens. And the ending is the ordinary ending. The woman

suffers. The man goes free.
GERALD. I don't know if that is the ordinary ending, mother: I

hope it is not. But your life, at any rate, shall not end like
that. The man shall make whateverreparation is possible. It is

not enough. It does not wipe out the past, I know that. But at
least it makes the future better, better for you, mother.

MRS. ARBUTHNOT. I refuse to marry Lord Illingworth.
GERALD. If he came to you himself and asked you to be his wife you

would give him a different answer. Remember, he is my father.
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. If he came himself, which he will not do, my

answer would be the same. Remember I am your mother.

• writing [´raitiŋ] n.书写；写作；书法 (初中英语单词)
• thunder [´θʌndə] n.雷 vi.打雷 vt.吼出 (初中英语单词)
• romantic [rəu´mæntik] a.传奇(式)的；浪漫的 (初中英语单词)
• unfortunate [ʌn´fɔ:tʃunit] a.不幸的，运气差的 (初中英语单词)
• devotion [di´vəuʃən] n.献身；忠诚；热爱 (初中英语单词)
• intention [in´tenʃən] n.意图；打算；意义 (初中英语单词)
• suitable [´su:təbəl, ´sju:-] a.合适的，适当的 (初中英语单词)
• atmosphere [´ætməsfiə] n.大气；空气；气氛 (初中英语单词)
• solemn [´sɔləm] a.严肃的；隆重的 (初中英语单词)
• envelope [´envələup] n.信封，封皮 (初中英语单词)
• indian [´indiən] a.印度的 n.印度人 (初中英语单词)
• obvious [´ɔbviəs] a.明显的；显而易见的 (初中英语单词)
• whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
• lifetime [´laiftaim] n.一生，终生，寿命 (高中英语单词)
• flattering [´flætəriŋ] a.谄媚的；奉承的 (高中英语单词)
• ending [´endiŋ] n.结尾，结局 (高中英语单词)
• lawful [´lɔ:fəl] a.合法的，守法的 (英语四级单词)
• inevitably [in´evitəbli] ad.不可避免地；必然地 (英语四级单词)
• reparation [,repə´reiʃən] n.补偿；补救 (英语四级单词)
• horribly [´hɔrəbli] ad.恐怖地 (英语六级单词)
• unwise [ʌn´waiz] a.不聪明的，愚笨的 (英语六级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)