You must never see her again, Robert. She is not a woman
you should ever speak to. She is not worthy to talk to a man like you.
No; you must write to her at once, now, this moment, and let your letter
show her that your decision is quite irrevocable!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Write this moment!

LADY CHILTERN. Yes.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. But it is so late. It is close on twelve.

LADY CHILTERN. That makes no matter. She must know at once that she has
been mistaken in you--and that you are not a man to do anything base or
underhand or dishonourable. Write here, Robert. Write that you decline
to support this scheme of hers, as you hold it to be a dishonest scheme.
Yes--write the word dishonest. She knows what that word means. [SIR
ROBERT CHILTERN _sits down and writes a letter_. _His wife takes it up
and reads it_.] Yes; that will do. [_Rings bell_.] And now the
envelope. [_He writes the envelope slowly_. _Enter_ MASON.] Have this
letter sent at once to Claridge's Hotel. There is no answer. [_Exit_
MASON. LADY CHILTERN _kneels down beside her husband_, _and puts her
arms around him_.] Robert, love gives one an instinct to things. I feel
to-night that I have saved you from something that might have been a
danger to you, from something that might have made men honour you less
than they do. I don't think you realise sufficiently, Robert, that you
have brought into the political life of our time a nobler atmosphere, a
finer attitude towards life, a freer air of purer aims and higher
ideals--I know it, and for that I love you, Robert.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Oh, love me always, Gertrude, love me always!

LADY CHILTERN. I will love you always, because you will always be worthy
of love. We needs must love the highest when we see it! [_Kisses him
and rises and goes out_.]

[SIR ROBERT CHILTERN _walks up and down for a moment_; _then sits down
and buries his face in his hands_. _The Servant enters and begins
pulling out the lights_. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN _looks up_.]

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Put out the lights, Mason, put out the lights!

[_The Servant puts out the lights_. _The room becomes almost dark_.
_The only light there is comes from the great chandelier that hangs over
the staircase and illumines the tapestry of the Triumph of Love_.]

ACT DROP

SECOND ACT

SCENE

_Morning-room at Sir Robert Chiltern's house_.

[LORD GORING, _dressed in the h