Lady Bracknell. To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long
engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each
other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.

Jack. I beg your pardon for interrupting you, Lady Bracknell, but
this engagement is quite out of the question. I am Miss Cardew's
guardian, and she cannot marry without my consent until she comes of
age. That consent I absolutely decline to give.

Lady Bracknell. Upon what grounds may I ask? Algernon is an
extremely, I may almost say an ostentatiously, eligible young man.
He has nothing, but he looks everything. What more can one desire?

Jack. It pains me very much to have to speak frankly to you, Lady
Bracknell, about your nephew, but the fact is that I do not approve
at all of his moral character. I suspect him of being untruthful.
[Algernon and Cecily look at him in indignant amazement.]

Lady Bracknell. Untruthful! My nephew Algernon? Impossible! He
is an Oxonian.

Jack. I fear there can be no possible doubt about the matter. This
afternoon during my temporary absence in London on an important
question of romance, he obtained admission to my house by means of
the false pretence of being my brother. Under an assumed name he
drank, I've just been informed by my butler, an entire pint bottle
of my Perrier-Jouet, Brut, '89; wine I was specially reserving for
myself. Continuing his disgraceful deception, he succeeded in the
course of the afternoon in alienating the affections of my only