Jack. Oh, that is nonsense.

Algernon. What about your brother? What about the profligate
Ernest?

Jack. Oh, before the end of the week I shall have got rid of him.
I'll say he died in Paris of apoplexy. Lots of people die of
apoplexy, quite suddenly, don't they?

Algernon. Yes, but it's hereditary, my dear fellow. It's a sort of
thing that runs in families. You had much better say a severe
chill.

Jack. You are sure a severe chill isn't hereditary, or anything of
that kind?

Algernon. Of course it isn't!

Jack. Very well, then. My poor brother Ernest to carried off
suddenly, in Paris, by a severe chill. That gets rid of him.

Algernon. But I thought you said that . . . Miss Cardew was a
little too much interested in your poor brother Ernest? Won't she
feel his loss a good deal?

Jack. Oh, that is all right. Cecily is not a silly romantic girl,
I am glad to say. She has got a capital appetite, goes long walks,
and pays no attention at all to her lessons.

Algernon. I would rather like to see Cecily.