lord goring. Doesn’t that sound rather like tempting Providence?
mrs. cheveley. Oh! surely Providence can resist temptation by this time. [Makes a sign to him to take her cloak off, which he does.]
lord goring. I am glad you have called. I am going to give you some good advice.
mrs. cheveley. Oh! pray don’t. One should never give a woman anything that she can’t wear in the evening.
lord goring. I see you are quite as wilful as you used to be.
mrs. cheveley. Far more! I have greatly improved. I have had more experience.
lord goring. Too much experience is a dangerous thing. Pray have a cigarette. Half the pretty women in London smoke cigarettes. Personally I prefer the other half.
mrs. cheveley. Thanks. I never smoke. My dressmaker wouldn’t like it, and a woman’s first duty in life is to her dressmaker, isn’t it? What the second duty is, no one has as yet discovered.
lord goring. You have come here to sell me Robert Chiltern’s letter, haven’t you?
mrs. cheveley. To offer it to you on conditions. How did you guess that?