It is best forgotten! Mrs. Cheveley may have
changed since then. No one should be entirely judged by their past.

LADY CHILTERN. [_Sadly_.] One's past is what one is. It is the only
way by which people should be judged.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. That is a hard saying, Gertrude!

LADY CHILTERN. It is a true saying, Robert. And what did she mean by
boasting that she had got you to lend your support, your name, to a thing
I have heard you describe as the most dishonest and fraudulent scheme
there has ever been in political life?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Biting his lip_.] I was mistaken in the view I
took. We all may make mistakes.

LADY CHILTERN. But you told me yesterday that you had received the
report from the Commission, and that it entirely condemned the whole
thing.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Walking up and down_.] I have reasons now to
believe that the Commission was prejudiced, or, at any rate, misinformed.
Besides, Gertrude, public and private life are different things. They
have different laws, and move on different lines.

LADY CHILTERN. They should both represent man at his highest. I see no
difference between them.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Stopping_.] In the present case, on a matter of
practical politics, I have changed my mind. That is all.

LADY CHILTERN. All!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Sternly_.] Yes!

LADY CHILTERN. Robert! Oh! it is horrible that I should have to ask you
such a question--Robert, are you telling me the whole truth?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Why do you ask me such a question?

LADY CHILTERN. [_After a pause_.] Why do you not answer it?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Sitting down_.] Gertrude, truth is a very
complex thing, and politics is a very complex business. There are wheels
within wheels. One may be under certain obligations to people that one
must pay. Sooner or later in political life one has to compromise.
Every one does.

LADY CHILTERN. Compromise? Robert, why do you talk so differently
to-night from the way I have always heard you talk? Why are you changed?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I am not changed. But circumstances alter things.

LADY CHILTERN. Circumstances should never alter principles!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. But if I told you--

LADY CHILTERN. What?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. That it was necessary, vitally necessary?

LADY CHILTERN. It can never be necessary to do what is not honourable.
Or if it be necessary, then what is it that I have