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the Hartlocks'. I believe they have got a mauve Hungarian band that
plays mauve Hungarian music. See you soon. Good-bye!

[Exit]

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. How beautiful you look to-night, Gertrude!

LADY CHILTERN. Robert, it is not true, is it? You are not going to
lend your support to this Argentine speculation? You couldn't!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Starting.] Who told you I intended to do so?

LADY CHILTERN. That woman who has just gone out, Mrs. Cheveley, as
she calls herself now. She seemed to taunt me with it. Robert, I
know this woman. You don't. We were at school together. She was
untruthful, dishonest, an evil influence on every one whose trust or
friendship she could win. I hated, I despised her. She stole
things, she was a thief. She was sent away for being a thief. Why
do you let her influence you?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Gertrude, what you tell me may be true, but it
happened many years ago. 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

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