ely.

LORD GORING. You mean that you amused yourself immensely, don't you?

MRS. CHEVELEY. What do you know about my married life?

LORD GORING. Nothing: but I can read it like a book.

MRS. CHEVELEY. What book?

LORD GORING. [_Rising_.] The Book of Numbers.

MRS. CHEVELEY. Do you think it is quite charming of you to be so rude to
a woman in your own house?

LORD GORING. In the case of very fascinating women, sex is a challenge,
not a defence.

MRS. CHEVELEY. I suppose that is meant for a compliment. My dear
Arthur, women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That
is the difference between the two sexes.

LORD GORING. Women are never disarmed by anything, as far as I know
them.

MRS. CHEVELEY. [_After a pause_.] Then you are going to allow your
greatest friend, Robert Chiltern, to be ruined, rather than marry some
one who really has considerable attractions left. I thought you would
have risen to some great height of self-sacrifice, Arthur. I think you
should. And the rest of your life you could spend in contemplating your
own perfections.

LORD GORING. Oh! I do that as it is. And self-sacrifice is a thing that
should be put down by law. It is so demoralising to the people for whom
one sacrifices oneself. They always go to the bad.

MRS. CHEVELEY. As if anything could demoralise Robert Chiltern! You
seem to forget that I know his real character.

LORD GORING. What you know about him is not his real character. It was
an act of folly done in his youth, dishonourable, I admit, shameful, I
admit, unworthy of him, I admit, and therefore . . . not his true
character.

MRS. CHEVELEY. How you men stand up for each other!

LORD GORING. How you women war against each other!

MRS. CHEVELEY. [_Bitterly_.] I only war against one woman, against
Gertrude Chiltern. I hate her. I hate her now more than ever.

LORD GORING. Because you have brought a real tragedy into her life, I
suppose.

MRS. CHEVELEY. [_With a sneer_.] Oh, there is only one real tragedy in
a woman's life. The fact that her past is always her lover, and her
future invariably her husband.

LORD GORING. Lady Chiltern knows nothing of the kind of life to which
you are alluding.

MRS. CHEVELEY. A woman whose size in gloves is seven and three-quarters
never knows much about anything. You know Gertrude has always worn seven
and three-quarters? That is one of the reasons why there was never any
mor