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] Those are my terms.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [In a low voice.] I will give you any sum of
money you want.

MRS. CHEVELEY. Even you are not rich enough, Sir Robert, to buy back
your past. No man is.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I will not do what you ask me. I will not.

MRS. CHEVELEY. You have to. If you don't . . . [Rises from the
sofa.]

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Bewildered and unnerved.] Wait a moment!
What did you propose? You said that you would give me back my
letter, didn't you?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Yes. That is agreed. I will be in the Ladies'
Gallery to-morrow night at half-past eleven. If by that time - and
you will have had heaps of opportunity - you have made an
announcement to the House in the terms I wish, I shall hand you back
your letter with the prettiest thanks, and the best, or at any rate
the most suitable, compliment I can think of. I intend to play quite
fairly with you. One should always play fairly . . . when one has
the winning cards. The Baron taught me that . . . amongst other
things.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. You must let me have time to consider your
proposal.

MRS. CHEVELEY. No; you must settle now!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Give me a week - three days!

MRS. CHEVELEY. Impossible! I have got to telegraph to Vienna to-
night.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. My God! what brought you into my life?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Circumstances. [Moves towards the door.]

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Don't go. I consent. The report shall be
withdrawn. I will arrange for a question to be put to me on the
subject.

MRS. CHEVELEY. Thank you. I knew we should come to an amicable
agreement. I understood your nature from the first. I analysed you,
though you did not adore me. And now you can get my carriage for me,
Sir Robert. I see the people coming up from supper, and Englishmen
always get romantic after a meal, and that bores me dreadfully.
[Exit SIR ROBERT CHILTERN.]

[Enter Guests, LADY CHILTERN, LADY MARKBY, LORD CAVERSHAM, LADY
BASILDON, MRS. MARCHMONT, VICOMTE DE NANJAC, MR. MONTFORD.]

LADY MARKBY. Well, dear Mrs. Cheveley, I hope you have enjoyed
yourself. Sir Robert is very entertaining, is he not?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Most entertaining! I have enjoyed my talk with him
immensely.

LADY MARKBY. He has had a very interesting and brilliant career.
And he has married a most admirable wife. Lady Chiltern is a woman
of the very highest principles, I am glad to say. I am a little too
old now, myself, to trouble about setting a good example, but I
always admire people who do. And Lady Chiltern has a very ennobling
effect on life, though her dinner-parties are rather dull sometimes.
But one can't have everything, can one? And now I must go, dear.
Shall I call for you to-morrow?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Thanks.

LADY MARKBY. We might drive in the Park at five. Everything looks
so fresh in the Park now!

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