酷兔英语

章节正文

[Exit PARKER C.]
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. [Coming down C., and shaking hands.] Dear

Margaret, I am so pleased to see you. You remember Agatha, don't
you? [Crossing L.C.] How do you do, Lord Darlington? I won't let

you know my daughter, you are far too wicked.
LORD DARLINGTON. Don't say that, Duchess. As a wicked man I am a

complete failure. Why, there are lots of people who say I have
never really done anything wrong in the whole course of my life.

Of course they only say it behind my back.
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Isn't he dreadful? Agatha, this is Lord

Darlington. Mind you don't believe a word he says. [LORD
DARLINGTON crosses R.C.] No, no tea, thank you, dear. [Crosses

and sits on sofa.] We have just had tea at Lady Markby's. Such
bad tea, too. It was quite undrinkable. I wasn't at all

surprised. Her own son-in-law supplies it. Agatha is looking
forward so much to your ball to-night, dear Margaret.

LADY WINDERMERE. [Seated L.C.] Oh, you mustn't think it is going
to be a ball, Duchess. It is only a dance in honour of my

birthday. A small and early.
LORD DARLINGTON. [Standing L.C.] Very small, very early, and very

select, Duchess.
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. [On sofa L.] Of course it's going to be

select. But we know THAT, dear Margaret, about YOUR house. It is
really one of the few houses in London where I can take Agatha, and

where I feel perfectly secure about dear Berwick. I don't know
what society is coming to. The most dreadful people seem to go

everywhere. They certainly come to my parties - the men get quite
furious if one doesn't ask them. Really, some one should make a

stand against it.
LADY WINDERMERE. I will, Duchess. I will have no one in my house

about whom there is any scandal.
LORD DARLINGTON. [R.C.] Oh, don't say that, Lady Windermere. I

should never be admitted! [Sitting.]
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Oh, men don't matter. With women it is

different. We're good. Some of us are, at least. But we are
positively getting elbowed into the corner. Our husbands would

really forget our existence if we didn't nag at them from time to
time, just to remind them that we have a perfect legal right to do

so.
LORD DARLINGTON. It's a curious thing, Duchess, about the game of

marriage - a game, by the way, that is going out of fashion - the
wives hold all the honours, and invariably lose the odd trick.

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. The odd trick? Is that the husband, Lord
Darlington?

LORD DARLINGTON. It would be rather a good name for the modern
husband.

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Dear Lord Darlington, how thoroughly depraved
you are!

LADY WINDERMERE. Lord Darlington is trivial.
LORD DARLINGTON. Ah, don't say that, Lady Windermere.

LADY WINDERMERE. Why do you TALK so trivially about life, then?
LORD DARLINGTON. Because I think that life is far too important a

thing ever to talk seriously about it. [Moves up C.]
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. What does he mean? Do, as a concession to my

poor wits, Lord Darlington, just explain to me what you really
mean.

LORD DARLINGTON. [Coming down back of table.] I think I had
better not, Duchess. Nowadays to be intelligible is to be found

out. Good-bye! [Shakes hands with DUCHESS.] And now - [goes up
stage] Lady Windermere, good-bye. I may come to-night, mayn't I?

Do let me come.
LADY WINDERMERE. [Standing up stage with LORD DARLINGTON.] Yes,

certainly. But you are not to say foolish, insincere things to
people.

LORD DARLINGTON. [Smiling.] Ah! you are beginning to reform me.
It is a dangerous thing to reform any one, Lady Windermere. [Bows,

and exit C.]
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. [Who has risen, goes C.] What a charming,

wicked creature! I like him so much. I'm quite delighted he's
gone! How sweet you're looking! Where DO you get your gowns? And

now I must tell you how sorry I am for you, dear Margaret.
[Crosses to sofa and sits with LADY WINDERMERE.] Agatha, darling!

LADY AGATHA. Yes, mamma. [Rises.]
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Will you go and look over the photograph album

that I see there?
LADY AGATHA. Yes, mamma. [Goes to table up L.]

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Dear girl! She is so fond of photographs of
Switzerland. Such a pure taste, I think. But I really am so sorry

for you, Margaret
LADY WINDERMERE. [Smiling.] Why, Duchess?

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Oh, on account of that horrid woman. She
dresses so well, too, which makes it much worse, sets such a

dreadful example. Augustus - you know my disreputable brother -
such a trial to us all - well, Augustus is completely infatuated

about her. It is quite scandalous, for she is absolutely
inadmissible into society. Many a woman has a past, but I am told

that she has at least a dozen, and that they all fit.
LADY WINDERMERE. Whom are you talking about, Duchess?

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. About Mrs. Erlynne.
LADY WINDERMERE. Mrs. Erlynne? I never heard of her, Duchess.

And what HAS she to do with me?
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. My poor child! Agatha, darling!

LADY AGATHA. Yes, mamma.
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Will you go out on the terrace and look at the

sunset?
LADY AGATHA. Yes, mamma. [Exit through window, L.]

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Sweet girl! So devoted to sunsets! Shows
such refinement of feeling, does it not? After all, there is

nothing like Nature, is there?
LADY WINDERMERE. But what is it, Duchess? Why do you talk to me

about this person?
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Don't you really know? I assure you we're all

so distressed about it. Only last night at dear Lady Jansen's
every one was saying how extraordinary it was that, of all men in

London, Windermere should behave in such a way.
LADY WINDERMERE. My husband - what has HE got to do with any woman

of that kind?
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Ah, what indeed, dear? That is the point. He

goes to see her continually, and stops for hours at a time, and
while he is there she is not at home to any one. Not that many

ladies call on her, dear, but she has a great many disreputable men
friends - my own brother particularly, as I told you - and that is

what makes it so dreadful about Windermere. We looked upon HIM as
being such a model husband, but I am afraid there is no doubt about

it. My dear nieces - you know the Saville girls, don't you? - such
nice domestic creatures - plain, dreadfully plain, but so good -

well, they're always at the window doing fancy work, and making
ugly things for the poor, which I think so useful of them in these

dreadfulsocialistic days, and this terrible woman has taken a
house in Curzon Street, right opposite them - such a respectable

street, too! I don't know what we're coming to! And they tell me
that Windermere goes there four and five times a week - they SEE

him. They can't help it - and although they never talk scandal,
they - well, of course - they remark on it to every one. And the

worst of it all is that I have been told that this woman has got a
great deal of money out of somebody, for it seems that she came to

London six months ago without anything at all to speak of, and now
she has this charming house in Mayfair, drives her ponies in the

Park every afternoon and all - well, all - since she has known poor
dear Windermere.

LADY WINDERMERE. Oh, I can't believe it!
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. But it's quite true, my dear. The whole of

London knows it. That is why I felt it was better to come and talk
to you, and advise you to take Windermere away at once to Homburg

or to Aix, where he'll have something to amuse him, and where you
can watch him all day long. I assure you, my dear, that on several

occasions after I was first married, I had to pretend to be very
ill, and was obliged to drink the most unpleasantmineral waters,

merely to get Berwick out of town. He was so extremely
susceptible. Though I am bound to say he never gave away any large

sums of money to anybody. He is far too high-principled for that!
LADY WINDERMERE. [Interrupting.] Duchess, Duchess, it's

impossible! [Rising and crossing stage to C.] We are only married
two years. Our child is but six months old. [Sits in chair R. of

L. table.]
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Ah, the dear pretty baby! How is the little

darling? Is it a boy or a girl? I hope a girl - Ah, no, I
remember it's a boy! I'm so sorry. Boys are so wicked. My boy is

excessively immoral. You wouldn't believe at what hours he comes
home. And he's only left Oxford a few months - I really don't know

what they teach them there.
LADY WINDERMERE. Are ALL men bad?

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Oh, all of them, my dear, all of them, without
any exception. And they never grow any better. Men become old,

but they never become good.
LADY WINDERMERE. Windermere and I married for love.

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Yes, we begin like that. It was only
Berwick's brutal and incessant threats of suicide that made me

accept him at all, and before the year was out, he was running
after all kinds of petticoats, every colour, every shape, every

material. In fact, before the honeymoon was over, I caught him
winking at my maid, a most pretty, respectable girl. I dismissed

her at once without a character. - No, I remember I passed her on
to my sister; poor dear Sir George is so short-sighted, I thought

it wouldn't matter. But it did, though - it was most unfortunate.
[Rises.] And now, my dear child, I must go, as we are dining out.

And mind you don't take this little aberration of Windermere's too
much to heart. Just take him abroad, and he'll come back to you

all right.
LADY WINDERMERE. Come back to me? [C.]

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. [L.C.] Yes, dear, these wicked women get our
husbands away from us, but they always come back, slightly damaged,

of course. And don't make scenes, men hate them!
LADY WINDERMERE. It is very kind of you, Duchess, to come and tell

me all this. But I can't believe that my husband is untrue to me.
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Pretty child! I was like that once. Now I

know that all men are monsters. [LADY WINDERMERE rings bell.] The
only thing to do is to feed the wretches well. A good cook does

wonders, and that I know you have. My dear Margaret, you are not
going to cry?

LADY WINDERMERE. You needn't be afraid, Duchess, I never cry.
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. That's quite right, dear. Crying is the

refuge of plain women but the ruin of pretty ones. Agatha,
darling!

LADY AGATHA. [Entering L.] Yes, mamma. [Stands back of table
L.C.]

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Come and bid good-bye to Lady Windermere, and
thank her for your charming visit. [Coming down again.] And by

the way, I must thank you for sending a card to Mr. Hopper - he's
that rich young Australian people are taking such notice of just at

present. His father made a great fortune by selling some kind of
food in circular tins - most palatable, I believe - I fancy it is

the thing the servants always refuse to eat. But the son is quite
interesting. I think he's attracted by dear Agatha's clever talk.

Of course, we should be very sorry to lose her, but I think that a
mother who doesn't part with a daughter every season has no real

affection. We're coming to-night, dear. [PARKER opens C. doors.]
And remember my advice, take the poor fellow out of town at once,

it is the only thing to do. Good-bye, once more; come, Agatha.
[Exeunt DUCHESS and LADY AGATHA C.]

LADY WINDERMERE. How horrible! I understand now what Lord


文章标签:名著  

章节正文