LADY BRACKNELL.
Ah, nowadays that is no guarantee of respectability of character. What number in Belgrave Square?
JACK.
149.
LADY BRACKNELL.
[Shaking her head.] The unfashionable side. I thought there was something. However, that could easily be altered.
JACK.
Do you mean the fashion, or the side?
LADY BRACKNELL.
[Sternly.] Both, if necessary, I presume. What are your politics?
JACK.
Well, I am afraid I really have none. I am a Liberal Unionist.
LADY BRACKNELL.
Oh, they count as Tories. They dine with us. Or come in the evening, at any rate. Now to minor matters. Are your parents living?
JACK.
I have lost both my parents.
LADY BRACKNELL.
To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Who was your father? He was evidently a man of some wealth. Was he born in what the Radical papers call the purple of commerce, or did he rise from the ranks of the aristocracy?
JACK.
I am afraid I really don’t know. The fact is, Lady Bracknell, I said I had lost my parents. It would be nearer the truth to say that my parents seem to have lost me . . . I don’t actually know who I am by birth. I was . . . well, I was found.