down on sofa.]

LORD DARLINGTON. If I know you at all, I know that you can't live
with a man who treats you like this! What sort of life would you
have with him? You would feel that he was lying to you every
moment of the day. You would feel that the look in his eyes was
false, his voice false, his touch false, his passion false. He
would come to you when he was weary of others; you would have to
comfort him. He would come to you when he was devoted to others;
you would have to charm him. You would have to be to him the mask
of his real life, the cloak to hide his secret.

LADY WINDERMERE. You are right--you are terribly right. But where
am I to turn? You said you would be my friend, Lord Darlington.--
Tell me, what am I to do? Be my friend now.

LORD DARLINGTON. Between men and women there is no friendship
possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no
friendship. I love you -

LADY WINDERMERE. No, no! [Rises.]

LORD DARLINGTON. Yes, I love you! You are more to me than
anything in the whole world. What does your husband give you?
Nothing. Whatever is in him he gives to this wretched woman, whom
he has thrust into your society, into your home, to shame you
before every one. I offer you my life -

LADY WINDERMERE. Lord Darlington!