each one of them, have worse secrets
in their own lives.

LORD GORING. That is the reason they are so pleased to find out other
people's secrets. It distracts public attention from their own.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. And, after all, whom did I wrong by what I did? No
one.

LORD GORING. [_Looking at him steadily_.] Except yourself, Robert.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_After a pause_.] Of course I had private
information about a certain transaction contemplated by the Government of
the day, and I acted on it. Private information is practically the
source of every large modern fortune.

LORD GORING. [_Tapping his boot with his cane_.] And public scandal
invariably the result.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Pacing up and down the room_.] Arthur, do you
think that what I did nearly eighteen years ago should be brought up
against me now? Do you think it fair that a man's whole career should be
ruined for a fault done in one's boyhood almost? I was twenty-two at the
time, and I had the double misfortune of being well-born and poor, two
unforgiveable things nowadays. Is it fair that the folly, the sin of
one's youth, if men choose to call it a sin, should wreck a life like
mine, should place me in the pillory, should shatter all that I have
worked for, all that I have built up. Is it fair, Arthur?

LORD GORING. Life is never fair, Robert. And perhaps it is a good thing
for most of us that it is not.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Every man of ambition has to fight his century with
its own weapons. What this century worships is wealth. The God of this
century is wealth. To succeed one must have wealth. At all costs one
must have wealth.

LORD GORING. You underrate yourself, Robert. Believe me, without wealth
you could have succeeded just as well.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. When I was old, perhaps. When I had lost my
passion for power, or could not use it. When I was tired, worn out,
disappointed. I wanted my success when I was young. Youth is the time
for success. I couldn't wait.

LORD GORING. Well, you certainly have had your success while you are
still young. No one in our day has had such a brilliant success.
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the age of forty--that's good
enough for any one, I should think.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. And if it is all taken away from me now? If I lose
everything over a horrible scandal? If I am hounded from public life?

LORD GORING. Robert, how could you have sold y