isn't
at all a becoming language. I know perfectly well that I look quite
plain after my German lesson.

Miss Prism. Child, you know how anxious your guardian is that you should
improve yourself in every way. He laid particular stress on your German,
as he was leaving for town yesterday. Indeed, he always lays stress on
your German when he is leaving for town.

Cecily. Dear Uncle Jack is so very serious! Sometimes he is so serious
that I think he cannot be quite well.

Miss Prism. [Drawing herself up.] Your guardian enjoys the best of
health, and his gravity of demeanour is especially to be commended in one
so comparatively young as he is. I know no one who has a higher sense of
duty and responsibility.

Cecily. I suppose that is why he often looks a little bored when we
three are together.

Miss Prism. Cecily! I am surprised at you. Mr. Worthing has many
troubles in his life. Idle merriment and triviality would be out of
place in his conversation. You must remember his constant anxiety about
that unfortunate young man his brother.

Cecily. I wish Uncle Jack would allow that unfortunate young man, his
brother, to come down here sometimes. We might have a good influence
over him, Miss Prism. I am sure you certainly would. You know German,
and geology, and things of that kind influence a man very much. [Cecily
begins to write in her diary.]

Miss Prism. [Shaking her head.] I do not think that even I could
produce any effect on a character that according to his own brother's
admission is irretrievably weak and vacillating. Indeed I am not sure
that I would desire to reclaim him. I am not in favour of this modern
mania for turning bad people into good people at a moment's notice. As a
man sows so let him reap. You must put away your diary, Cecily. I
really don't see why you should keep a diary at all.

Cecily. I keep a diary in order to enter the wonderful secrets of my
life. If I didn't write them down, I should probably forget all about
them.

Miss Prism. Memory, my dear Cecily, is the diary that we all carry about
with us.

Cecily. Yes, but it usually chronicles the things that have never
happened, and couldn't possibly have happened. I believe that Memory is
responsible for nearly all the three-volume novels that Mudie sends us.

Miss Prism. Do not speak slightingly of the three-volume novel, Cecily.
I wrote one myself in earlier days.

Cecily. Did you really, Miss Pris