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He was living
then in Park Lane, in the house Lord Woolcomb has now. I remember so
well how, with a strange smile on his pale, curved lips, he led me
through his wonderful picture gallery, showed me his tapestries, his
enamels, his jewels, his carved ivories, made me wonder at the
strange loveliness of the luxury in which he lived; and then told me
that luxury was nothing but a background, a painted scene in a play,
and that power, power over other men, power over the world, was the
one thing worth having, the one supreme pleasure worth knowing, the
one joy one never tired of, and that in our century only the rich
possessed it.

LORD GORING. [With great deliberation.] A thoroughly shallow creed.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Rising.] I didn't think so then. I don't
think so now. Wealth has given me enormous power. It gave me at the
very outset of my life freedom, and freedom is everything. You have
never been poor, and never known what ambition is. You cannot
understand what a wonderful chance the Baron gave me. Such a chance
as few men get.

LORD GORING. Fortunately for them, if one is to judge by results.
But tell me definitely, how did the Baron finally persuade you to -
well, to do what you did?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. When I was going away he said to me that if I
ever could give him any private information of real value he would
make me a very rich man. I was dazed at the prospect he held out to
me, and my ambition and my desire for power were at that time
boundless. Six weeks later certain private documents passed through
my hands.

LORD GORING. [Keeping his eyes steadily fixed on the carpet.] State
documents?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Yes. [LORD GORING sighs, then passes his hand
across his forehead and looks up.]

LORD GORING. I had no idea that you, of all men in the world, could
have been so weak, Robert, as to yield to such a temptation as Baron
Arnheim held out to you.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Weak? Oh, I am sick of hearing that phrase.
Sick of using it about others. Weak? Do you really think, Arthur,
that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there
are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and
courage, to yield to. To stake all one's life on a single moment, to
risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure,
I care not - there is no weakness in that. There is a horrible, a
terrible courage. I had that courage. I sat down the same afternoon
and wrote Baron Arnheim the letter this woman now holds. He made
three-quarters of a million over the transaction

LORD GORING. And you?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I received from the Baron 110,000 pounds.

LORD GORING. You were worth more, Robert.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. No; that money gave me exactly what I wanted,
power over others. I went into the House immediately. The Baron

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