attendance upon her as long as she lets him, and won't bother me.
I assure you, women of that kind are most useful. They form the
basis of other people's marriages.

DUMBY. What a mystery you are!

LADY PLYMDALE. [Looking at him.] I wish YOU were!

DUMBY. I am--to myself. I am the only person in the world I
should like to know thoroughly; but I don't see any chance of it
just at present.

[They pass into the ball-room, and LADY WINDERMERE and LORD
DARLINGTON enter from the terrace.]

LADY WINDERMERE. Yes. Her coming here is monstrous, unbearable.
I know now what you meant to-day at tea-time. Why didn't you tell
me right out? You should have!

LORD DARLINGTON. I couldn't! A man can't tell these things about
another man! But if I had known he was going to make you ask her
here to-night, I think I would have told you. That insult, at any
rate, you would have been spared.

LADY WINDERMERE. I did not ask her. He insisted on her coming--
against my entreaties--against my commands. Oh! the house is
tainted for me! I feel that every woman here sneers at me as she
dances by with my husband. What have I done to deserve this? I
gave him all my life. He took it--used it--spoiled it! I am
degraded in my own eyes; and I lack courage--I am a coward! [Sits