In
the second place, I don't give my consent.

Jack. Your consent!

Algernon. My dear fellow, Gwendolen is my first cousin. And before I
allow you to marry her, you will have to clear up the whole question of
Cecily. [Rings bell.]

Jack. Cecily! What on earth do you mean? What do you mean, Algy, by
Cecily! I don't know any one of the name of Cecily.

[Enter Lane.]

Algernon. Bring me that cigarette case Mr. Worthing left in the smoking-
room the last time he dined here.

Lane. Yes, sir. [Lane goes out.]

Jack. Do you mean to say you have had my cigarette case all this time? I
wish to goodness you had let me know. I have been writing frantic
letters to Scotland Yard about it. I was very nearly offering a large
reward.

Algernon. Well, I wish you would offer one. I happen to be more than
usually hard up.

Jack. There is no good offering a large reward now that the thing is
found.

[Enter Lane with the cigarette case on a salver. Algernon takes it at
once. Lane goes out.]

Algernon. I think that is rather mean of you, Ernest, I must say. [Opens
case and examines it.] However, it makes no matter, for, now that I look
at the inscription inside, I find that the thing isn't yours after all.

Jack. Of course it's mine. [Moving to him.] You have seen me with it a
hundred times, and you have no right whatsoever to read what is written
inside. It is a very ungentlemanly thing to read a private cigarette
case.

Algernon. Oh! it is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one
should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture
depends on what one shouldn't read.

Jack. I am quite aware of the fact, and I don't propose to discuss
modern culture. It isn't the sort of thing one should talk of in
private. I simply want my cigarette case back.

Algernon. Yes; but this isn't your cigarette case. This cigarette case
is a present from some one of the name of Cecily, and you said you didn't
know any one of that name.

Jack. Well, if you want to know, Cecily happens to be my aunt.

Algernon. Your aunt!

Jack. Yes. Charming old lady she is, too. Lives at Tunbridge Wells.
Just give it back to me, Algy.

Algernon. [Retreating to back of sofa.] But why does she call herself
little Cecily if she is your aunt and lives at Tunbridge Wells?
[Reading.] 'From little Cecily with her fondest love.'

Jack. [Moving to sofa and kneeling upon it.] My dear fellow,