ienna in order
that you should thoroughly understand me.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I fear I don't.

MRS. CHEVELEY. [_In her most nonchalant manner_.] My dear Sir Robert,
you are a man of the world, and you have your price, I suppose.
Everybody has nowadays. The drawback is that most people are so
dreadfully expensive. I know I am. I hope you will be more reasonable
in your terms.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Rises indignantly_.] If you will allow me, I
will call your carriage for you. You have lived so long abroad, Mrs.
Cheveley, that you seem to be unable to realise that you are talking to
an English gentleman.

MRS. CHEVELEY. [_Detains him by touching his arm with her fan_, _and
keeping it there while she is talking_.] I realise that I am talking to
a man who laid the foundation of his fortune by selling to a Stock
Exchange speculator a Cabinet secret.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Biting his lip_.] What do you mean?

MRS. CHEVELEY. [_Rising and facing him_.] I mean that I know the real
origin of your wealth and your career, and I have got your letter, too.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. What letter?

MRS. CHEVELEY. [_Contemptuously_.] The letter you wrote to Baron
Arnheim, when you were Lord Radley's secretary, telling the Baron to buy
Suez Canal shares--a letter written three days before the Government
announced its own purchase.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Hoarsely_.] It is not true.

MRS. CHEVELEY. You thought that letter had been destroyed. How foolish
of you! It is in my possession.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. The affair to which you allude was no more than a
speculation. The House of Commons had not yet passed the bill; it might
have been rejected.

MRS. CHEVELEY. It was a swindle, Sir Robert. Let us call things by
their proper names. It makes everything simpler. And now I am going to
sell you that letter, and the price I ask for it is your public support
of the Argentine scheme. You made your own fortune out of one canal.
You must help me and my friends to make our fortunes out of another!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. It is infamous, what you propose--infamous!

MRS. CHEVELEY. Oh, no! This is the game of life as we all have to play
it, Sir Robert, sooner or later!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I cannot do what you ask me.

MRS. CHEVELEY. You mean you cannot help doing it. You know you are
standing on the edge of a precipice. And it is not for you to make
terms. It is for you to accept them. Supposing