Mrs. Erlynne. [Laughing.] Of course I do. You’ll carry it so gracefully. You would carry off anything gracefully, dear Lord Augustus.
[When she reaches the door she looks back for a moment at Lady Windermere. Their eyes meet. Then she turns, and exit C. followed by Lord Augustus.]
Lady Windermere. You will never speak against Mrs. Erlynne again, Arthur, will you?
Lord Windermere. [Gravely.] She is better than one thought her.
Lady Windermere. She is better than I am.
Lord Windermere. [Smiling as he strokes her hair.] Child, you and she belong to different worlds. Into your world evil has never entered.
Lady Windermere. Don’t say that, Arthur. There is the same world for all of us, and good and evil, sin and innocence, go through it hand in hand. To shut one’s eyes to half of life that one may live securely is as though one blinded oneself that one might walk with more safety in a land of pit and precipice.
Lord Windermere. [Moves down with her.] Darling, why do you say that?
Lady Windermere. [Sits on sofa.] Because I, who had shut my eyes to life, came to the brink. And one who had separated us—
Lord Windermere. We were never separated.