tone, high principles. [_To_ LORD GORING.] Everything that you
have not got, sir, and never will have.

LORD GORING. I don't like principles, father. I prefer prejudices.

[SIR ROBERT CHILTERN _is on the brink of accepting the Prime Minister's
offer_, _when he sees wife looking at him with her clear_, _candid eyes_.
_He then realises that it is impossible_.]

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I cannot accept this offer, Lord Caversham. I have
made up my mind to decline it.

LORD CAVERSHAM. Decline it, sir!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. My intention is to retire at once from public life.

LORD CAVERSHAM. [_Angrily_.] Decline a seat in the Cabinet, and retire
from public life? Never heard such damned nonsense in the whole course
of my existence. I beg your pardon, Lady Chiltern. Chiltern, I beg your
pardon. [_To_ LORD GORING.] Don't grin like that, sir.

LORD GORING. No, father.

LORD CAVERSHAM. Lady Chiltern, you are a sensible woman, the most
sensible woman in London, the most sensible woman I know. Will you
kindly prevent your husband from making such a . . . from taking such
. . . Will you kindly do that, Lady Chiltern?

LADY CHILTERN. I think my husband in right in his determination, Lord
Caversham. I approve of it.

LORD CAVERSHAM. You approve of it? Good heavens!

LADY CHILTERN. [_Taking her husband's hand_.] I admire him for it. I
admire him immensely for it. I have never admired him so much before.
He is finer than even I thought him. [_To_ SIR ROBERT CHILTERN.] You
will go and write your letter to the Prime Minister now, won't you?
Don't hesitate about it, Robert.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_With a touch of bitterness_.] I suppose I had
better write it at once. Such offers are not repeated. I will ask you
to excuse me for a moment, Lord Caversham.

LADY CHILTERN. I may come with you, Robert, may I not?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Yes, Gertrude.

[LADY CHILTERN _goes out with him_.]

LORD CAVERSHAM. What is the matter with this family? Something wrong
here, eh? [_Tapping his forehead_.] Idiocy? Hereditary, I suppose.
Both of them, too. Wife as well as husband. Very sad. Very sad indeed!
And they are not an old family. Can't understand it.

LORD GORING. It is not idiocy, father, I assure you.

LORD CAVERSHAM. What is it then, sir?

LORD GORING. [_After some hesitation_.] Well, it is what is called
nowadays a high moral tone, father. That is all.

LORD CAVERSHAM. Hate these