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.
Lady Caroline. I don’t think that England should be represented abroad by an unmarried man, Jane. It might lead to complications.
Lady Hunstanton. You are too nervous, Caroline. Believe me, you are too nervous. Besides, Lord Illingworth may marry any day. I was in hopes he would have married lady Kelso. But I believe he said her family was too large. Or was it her feet? I forget which. I regret it very much. She was made to be an ambassador’s wife.
Lady Caroline. She certainly has a wonderful faculty of remembering people’s names, and forgetting their faces.