lord goring. But I love Mabel. No other woman has any place in my life.
lady chiltern. Robert, if they love each other, why should they not be married?
sir robert chiltern. Arthur cannot bring Mabel the love that she deserves.
lord goring. What reason have you for saying that?
sir robert chiltern. [After a pause.] Do you really require me to tell you?
lord goring. Certainly I do.
sir robert chiltern. As you choose. When I called on you yesterday evening I found Mrs. Cheveley concealed in your rooms. It was between ten and eleven o’clock at night. I do not wish to say anything more. Your relations with Mrs. Cheveley have, as I said to you last night, nothing whatsoever to do with me. I know you were engaged to be married to her once. The fascination she exercised over you then seems to have returned. You spoke to me last night of her as of a woman pure and stainless, a woman whom you respected and honoured. That may be so. But I cannot give my sister’s life into your hands. It would be wrong of me. It would be unjust, infamously unjust to her.
lord goring. I have nothing more to say.
lady chiltern. Robert, it was not Mrs. Cheveley whom Lord Goring expected last night.
sir robert chiltern. Not Mrs. Cheveley! Who was it then?