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better than you do. He has no secrets from me, and I don't think he
has any from you.

LORD GORING. He certainly has no secrets from me. At least I don't
think so.

LADY CHILTERN. Then am I not right in my estimate of him? I know I
am right. But speak to me frankly.

LORD GORING. [Looking straight at her.] Quite frankly?

LADY CHILTERN. Surely. You have nothing to conceal, have you?

LORD GORING. Nothing. But, my dear Lady Chiltern, I think, if you
will allow me to say so, that in practical life -

LADY CHILTERN. [Smiling.] Of which you know so little, Lord Goring
-

LORD GORING. Of which I know nothing by experience, though I know
something by observation. I think that in practical life there is
something about success, actual success, that is a little
unscrupulous, something about ambition that is unscrupulous always.
Once a man has set his heart and soul on getting to a certain point,
if he has to climb the crag, he climbs the crag; if he has to walk in
the mire -

LADY CHILTERN. Well?

LORD GORING. He walks in the mire. Of course I am only talking
generally about life.

LADY CHILTERN. [Gravely.] I hope so. Why do you look at me so
strangely, Lord Goring?

LORD GORING. Lady Chiltern, I have sometimes thought that . . .
perhaps you are a little hard in some of your views on life. I think
that . . . often you don't make sufficient allowances. In every
nature there are elements of weakness, or worse than weakness.
Supposing, for instance, that - that any public man, my father, or
Lord Merton, or Robert, say, had, years ago, written some foolish
letter to some one . . .

LADY CHILTERN. What do you mean by a foolish letter?

LORD GORING. A letter gravely compromising one's position. I am
only putting an imaginary case.

LADY CHILTERN. Robert is as incapable of doing a foolish thing as he
is of doing a wrong thing.

LORD GORING. [After a long pause.] Nobody is incapable of doing a
foolish thing. Nobody is incapable of doing a wrong thing.

LADY CHILTERN. Are you a Pessimist? What will the other dandies
say? They will all have to go into mourning.

LORD GORING. [Rising.] No, Lady Chiltern, I am not a Pessimist.
Indeed I am not sure that I quite know what Pessimism really means.
All I do know is that life cannot be understood without much charity,
cannot be lived without much charity. It is love, and not German
philosophy, that is the true explanation of this world, whatever may
be the explanation of the next. And if you are ever in trouble, Lady
Chiltern, trust me absolutely, and I will help you in every way I
can. If you ever want me, come to me for my assistance, and you
shall have it. Come at once to me.

LADY CHILTERN. [Looking at him in surprise.] Lord Goring, you are
talking quite seriously. I don't think I ever heard you talk
seriously before.

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