sir robert chiltern. You prefer to be natural?
mrs. cheveley. Sometimes. But it is such a very difficult pose to keep up.
sir robert chiltern. What would those modern psychological novelists, of whom we hear so much, say to such a theory as that?
mrs. cheveley. Ah! the strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. Men can be analysed, women . . . merely adored.
sir robert chiltern. You think science cannot grapple with the problem of women?
mrs. cheveley. Science can never grapple with the irrational. That is why it has no future before it, in this world.
sir robert chiltern. And women represent the irrational.
mrs. cheveley. Well-dressed women do.
sir robert chiltern. [With a polite bow.] I fear I could hardly agree with you there. But do sit down. And now tell me, what makes you leave your brilliant Vienna for our gloomy London—or perhaps the question is indiscreet?
mrs. cheveley. Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are.