MRS. CHEVELEY _grows pale_, _and
stops_. _The voices grow louder_, _and she goes back into the
drawing-room_, _biting her lip_.]

[_Enter_ LORD GORING _and_ LORD CAVERSHAM.]

LORD GORING. [_Expostulating_.] My dear father, if I am to get married,
surely you will allow me to choose the time, place, and person?
Particularly the person.

LORD CAVERSHAM. [_Testily_.] That is a matter for me, sir. You would
probably make a very poor choice. It is I who should be consulted, not
you. There is property at stake. It is not a matter for affection.
Affection comes later on in married life.

LORD GORING. Yes. In married life affection comes when people
thoroughly dislike each other, father, doesn't it? [_Puts on_ LORD
CAVERSHAM'S _cloak for him_.]

LORD CAVERSHAM. Certainly, sir. I mean certainly not, air. You are
talking very foolishly to-night. What I say is that marriage is a matter
for common sense.

LORD GORING. But women who have common sense are so curiously plain,
father, aren't they? Of course I only speak from hearsay.

LORD CAVERSHAM. No woman, plain or pretty, has any common sense at all,
sir. Common sense is the privilege of our sex.

LORD GORING. Quite so. And we men are so self-sacrificing that we never
use it, do we, father?

LORD CAVERSHAM. I use it, sir. I use nothing else.

LORD GORING. So my mother tells me.

LORD CAVERSHAM. It is the secret of your mother's happiness. You are
very heartless, sir, very heartless.

LORD GORING. I hope not, father.

[_Goes out for a moment_. _Then returns_, _looking rather put out_,
_with_ SIR ROBERT CHILTERN.]

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. My dear Arthur, what a piece of good luck meeting
you on the doorstep! Your servant had just told me you were not at home.
How extraordinary!

LORD GORING. The fact is, I am horribly busy to-night, Robert, and I
gave orders I was not at home to any one. Even my father had a
comparatively cold reception. He complained of a draught the whole time.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Ah! you must be at home to me, Arthur. You are my
best friend. Perhaps by to-morrow you will be my only friend. My wife
has discovered everything.

LORD GORING. Ah! I guessed as much!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Looking at him_.] Really! How?

LORD GORING. [_After some hesitation_.] Oh, merely by something in the
expression of your face as you came in. Who told her?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Mrs. Cheveley herself. And the wo