it! What moves behind that curtain?
[Rushes towards the curtain C.]
MRS. ERL. [Enters behind R.] Lord Windermere!

LORD WIN. Mrs. Erlynne!

   [Every one starts and turns round. Lady Windermere slips

out from behind the curtain and glides from the room L.]

MRS. ERL. I am afraid I took your wife's fan in mistake for my own
 when I was leaving your house to-night. I am so sorry. [Takes
 fan from him. Lord Windermere looks at her in contempt. Lord
 Darlington in mingled astonishment and anger. Lord Augustus

turns away. The other men smile at each other.]

                     ACT-DROP

FOURTH_ACT

FOURTH ACT

SCENE- Same as in Act I.

LADY WIN. [Lying on sofa.] How can I tell him? I can't tell him. It
  would kill me. I wonder what happened after I escaped from that
  horrible room. Perhaps she told them the true reason of her
  being there, and the real meaning of that- fatal fan of mine.
  Oh, if he knows- how can I look him in the face again? He would
  never forgive me. How securely one thinks one lives- out of
  reach of temptation, sin, folly. And then suddenly- Oh! Life is

terrible. It rules us, we do not rule it.

[Enter Rosalie R.]

ROS. Did your ladyship ring for me?
LADY WIN. Yes. Have you found out at what time Lord Windermere came
  in last night?
ROS. His lordship did not come in till five o'clock.
LADY WIN. Five o'clock? He knocked at my door this morning, didn't
  he?
ROS. Yes, my lady- at half-past nine. I told him your ladyship was
  not awake yet.
LADY WIN. Did he say anything?
ROS. Something about your ladyship's fan. I didn't quite catch what
  his lordship said. Has the fan been lost, my lady? I can't find
  it, and Parker says it was not left in any of the rooms. He has
  looked in all of them and on the terrace as well.
LADY WIN. It doesn't matter. Tell Parker not to trouble. That will
  do.                                 [Exit Rosalie.]
LADY WIN. [Rising.] She is sure to tell him. I can fancy a person
  doing a wonderful act of self-sacrifice, doing it spontaneously,
  recklessly, nobly- and afterwards finding out that it costs too

 much. Why should she hesitate between her ruin and mine?… How
strange! I would have publicly disgraced her in my own house.
She accepts public disgrace in the house of another to save
me…. There is a bitter irony in things, a bitter irony in the
way we talk of good and bad women…. Oh, what a lesson! and
what a pity that in life we only get our lessons when they are
of no use to us! For even if she doesn’t tell, I must. Oh! the
shame of it, the shame of it. To tell it is to live through it
all again. Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the
second. Words are perhaps the worst. Words are merciless…. Oh!
[Starts as Lord Windermere enters.]
LORD WIN. [Kisses her.] Margaret- how pale you look!
LADY WIN. I slept very badly.
LORD WIN. [Sitting on the sofa with her.] I am so sorry. I came in
dreadfully late, and didn’t like to wake you. You are crying,
dear.
LADY WIN. Yes, I am crying, for I have something to tell you,
Arthur.
LORD WIN. My dear child, you are not well. You’ve been doing too
much. Let us go away to the country. You’ll be all right at
Selby. The season is almost over. There is no use staying on.
Poor darling! We’ll go away to-day, if you like. [Rises.] We can
easily catch the 4:30. I’ll send a wire to Fannen. [Crosses and
sits down at table to write a telegram.]
LADY WIN. Yes: let us go away to-day. No; I can’t go to-day,
Arthur. There is some one I must see before I leave town- some
one who has been kind to me.
LORD WIN. [Rising and leaning over sofa.] Kind to you?
LADY WIN. Far more than that. [Rises and goes to him.] I will tell
you, Arthur, but only love me, love me as you used to love me.
LORD WIN. Used to? You are not thinking of that wretched woman who
came here last night? [Coming round and sitting R. of her.] You
don’t still imagine- no, you couldn’t.
LADY WIN. I don’t. I know now I was wrong and foolish.
LORD WIN. It was very good of you to receive her last night- but
 you are never to see her again.
LADY WIN. Why do you say that? [A pause.]
LORD WIN. [Holding her hand.] Margaret, I thought Mrs. Erlynne was
a woman more sinned against than sinning, as the phrase goes. I
thought she wanted to be good, to get back into a place she had
lost by a moment’s folly, to lead again a decent life. I
believed what she told me- I was mistaken in her. She is bad- as
bad as a woman can be.
LADY WIN. Arthur, Arthur, don’t talk so bitterly about any woman.
I don’t think now that people can be divided into the good and
the bad, as though they were two separate races or creations.
What are called good women may have terrible things in them, mad
moods of recklessness, assertion, jealousy, sin. Bad women, as
they are termed, may have in them sorrow, repentance, pity,
sacrifice. And I don’t think Mrs. Erlynne a bad woman- I know
she’s not.
LORD WIN. My dear child, the woman’s impossible. No matter what
harm she tries to do us, you must never see her again. She is
inadmissable anywhere.
LADY WIN. But I want to see her. I want her to come here.
LORD WIN. Never!
LADY WIN. She came here once as your guest. She must come now as
mine . That is but fair.
LORD WIN. She should never have come here.
LADY WIN. [Rising.] It is too late, Arthur, to say that now. [Moves
away.]
LORD WIN. [Rising.] Margaret, if you knew where Mrs. Erlynne went
last night, after she left this house, you would not sit in the
same room with her. It was absolutely shameless, the whole
thing.
LADY WIN. Arthur, I can’t bear it any longer. I must tell you. Last

night-

   [Enter Parker with a tray on which Lady Windermere's
 fan and a card.]

-
PAR. Mrs. Erlynne has called to return your ladyship’s fan which
she took away by mistake last night. Mrs. Erlynne has written a
message on the card.
LADY WIN. Oh, ask Mrs. Erlynne to be kind enough to come up. Reads
card.] Say I shall be very glad to see her. [Exit Parker.]
She wants to see me, Arthur.
LORD WIN. [Takes card and looks at it.] Margaret, I beg you not
to.
Let me see her first, at any rate. She’s a very dangerous woman.
She is the most dangerous woman I know. You don’t realize what
you’re doing.
LADY WIN. It is right that I should see her.
LORD WIN. My child, you may be on the brink of a great sorrow.
Don’t go to meet it. It is absolutely necessary that I should
see her before you do.

LADY WIN. Why should it be necessary?

[Enter Parker.]

PAR. Mrs. Erlynne.

[Enter Mrs. Erlynne.] [Exit Parker.]

MRS. ERL. How do you do, Lady Windermere? [To Lord Windermere.]
  How do you do? Do you know, Lady Windermere, I am so sorry about
  your fan. I can't imagine how I made such a silly mistake. Most
  stupid of me. And as I was driving in your direction, I thought
  I would take the opportunity of returning your property in
  person, with many apologies for my carelessness, and of bidding
  you good-bye.
LADY WIN. Good-bye? [Moves towards sofa with Mrs. Erlynne and sits
  down beside her.] Are you going away, then, Mrs. Erlynne?
MRS. ERL. Yes; I am going to live abroad again. The English climate
  doesn't suit me. My- heart is affected here, and that I don't

 like. I prefer living in the south. London is too full of fogs
and- and serious people, Lord Windermere. Whether the fogs
produce the serious people or whether the serious people produce
the fogs, I don’t know, but the whole thing rather gets on my
nerves, and so I’m leaving this afternoon by the Club Train.
LADY WIN. This afternoon? But I wanted so much to come and see you.
MRS. ERL. How kind of you! But I am afraid I have to go.
LADY WIN. Shall I never see you again, Mrs. Erlynne?
MRS. ERL. I am afraid not. Our lives lie too far apart. But there
is a little thing I would like you to do for me. I want a
photograph of you, Lady Windermere- would you give me one? You
don’t know how gratified I should be.
LADY WIN. Oh, with pleasure. There is one on that table. I’ll show
it to you. [Goes across to the table.]
LORD WIN. [Coming up to Mrs. Erlynne and speaking in a low voice.]
It is monstrous your intruding yourself here after your conduct
last night.
MRS. ERL. [With an amused smile.] My dear Windermere, manners
before morals!
LADY WIN. [Returning.] I’m afraid it is very flattering- I am not
so pretty as that. [Showing photograph.]
MRS. ERL. You are much prettier. But haven’t you got one of
yourself with your little boy?
LADY WIN. I have. Would you prefer one of those?
MRS. ERL. Yes.
LADY WIN. I’ll go and get it for you, if you’ll excuse me for a
moment. I have one upstairs.
MRS. ERL. So sorry, Lady Windermere, to give you so much trouble.
LADY WIN. [Moves to door R.] No trouble at all, Mrs, Erlynne.
MRS.