. Robert, you are your sister's guardian, and I want your
consent to my marriage with her. That is all.

LADY CHILTERN. Oh, I am so glad! I am so glad! [_Shakes hands with_
LORD GORING.]

LORD GORING. Thank you, Lady Chiltern.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_With a troubled look_.] My sister to be your
wife?

LORD GORING. Yes.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Speaking with great firmness_.] Arthur, I am
very sorry, but the thing is quite out of the question. I have to think
of Mabel's future happiness. And I don't think her happiness would be
safe in your hands. And I cannot have her sacrificed!

LORD GORING. Sacrificed!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Yes, utterly sacrificed. Loveless marriages are
horrible. But there is one thing worse than an absolutely loveless
marriage. A marriage in which there is love, but on one side only;
faith, but on one side only; devotion, but on one side only, and in which
of the two hearts one is sure to be broken.

LORD GORING. But I love Mabel. No other woman has any place in my life.

LADY CHILTERN. Robert, if they love each other, why should they not be
married?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Arthur cannot bring Mabel the love that she
deserves.

LORD GORING. What reason have you for saying that?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_After a pause_.] Do you really require me to
tell you?

LORD GORING. Certainly I do.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. As you choose. When I called on you yesterday
evening I found Mrs. Cheveley concealed in your rooms. It was between
ten and eleven o'clock at night. I do not wish to say anything more.
Your relations with Mrs. Cheveley have, as I said to you last night,
nothing whatsoever to do with me. I know you were engaged to be married
to her once. The fascination she exercised over you then seems to have
returned. You spoke to me last night of her as of a woman pure and
stainless, a woman whom you respected and honoured. That may be so. But
I cannot give my sister's life into your hands. It would be wrong of me.
It would be unjust, infamously unjust to her.

LORD GORING. I have nothing more to say.

LADY CHILTERN. Robert, it was not Mrs. Cheveley whom Lord Goring
expected last night.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Not Mrs. Cheveley! Who was it then?

LORD GORING. Lady Chiltern!

LADY CHILTERN. It was your own wife. Robert, yesterday afternoon Lord
Goring told me that if ever I was in trouble I could come to him for
help, as he was our oldest and best