[Enter Footman with shawl.]

LADY HUNSTANTON. I will write and tell her about it, and ask her
to come up and meet him. [To Footman.] Just wait, Francis.
[Writes letter.]

LADY CAROLINE. That is a very wonderful opening for so young a man
as you are, Mr. Arbuthnot.

GERALD. It is indeed, Lady Caroline. I trust I shall be able to
show myself worthy of it.

LADY CAROLINE. I trust so.

GERALD. [To HESTER.] YOU have not congratulated me yet, Miss
Worsley.

HESTER. Are you very pleased about it?

GERALD. Of course I am. It means everything to me - things that
were out of the reach of hope before may be within hope's reach
now.

HESTER. Nothing should be out of the reach of hope. Life is a
hope.

LADY HUNSTANTON. I fancy, Caroline, that Diplomacy is what Lord
Illingworth is aiming at. I heard that he was offered Vienna. But
that may not be true.