SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Bewildered and unnerved_.] Wait a moment! What did you propose? You said that you would give me back my letter, didn’t you? MRS. CHEVELEY. Yes. That is agreed. I will be in the Ladies’ Gallery to-morrow night at half-past eleven. If by that time—and you will have had heaps of opportunity—you have made an announcement to the House in the terms I wish, I shall hand you back your letter with the prettiest thanks, and the best, or at any rate the most suitable, compliment I can think of. I intend to play quite fairly with you. One should always play fairly . . . when one has the winning cards. The Baron taught me that . . . amongst other things. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. You must let me have time to consider your proposal. MRS. CHEVELEY. No; you must settle now! SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Give me a week—three days! MRS. CHEVELEY. Impossible! I have got to telegraph to Vienna to-night. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. My God! what brought you into my life? MRS. CHEVELEY. Circumstances. [_Moves towards the door_.] SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Don’t go. I consent. The report shall be withdrawn. I will arrange for a question to be put to me on the subject. MRS. CHEVELEY. Thank you. I knew we should come to an amicable agreement. I understood your nature from the first. I analysed you, though you did not adore me. And now you can get my carriage for me, Sir Robert. I see the people coming up from supper, and Englishmen always get romantic after a meal, and that bores me dreadfully. [_Exit_ SIR ROBERT CHILTERN.] [_Enter Guests_, LADY CHILTERN, LADY MARKBY, LORD CAVERSHAM, LADY BASILDON, MRS. MARCHMONT, VICOMTE DE NANJAC, MR. MONTFORD.] LADY MARKBY. Well, dear Mrs. Cheveley, I hope you have enjoyed yourself. Sir Robert is very entertaining, is he not? MRS. CHEVELEY. Most entertaining! I have enjoyed my talk with him immensely. LADY MARKBY. He has had a very interesting and brilliant career. And he has married a most admirable wife. Lady Chiltern is a woman of the very highest principles, I am glad to say. I am a little too old now, myself, to trouble about setting a good example, but I always admire people who do. And Lady Chiltern has a very ennobling effect on life, though her dinner-parties are rather dull sometimes. But one can’t have everything, can one? And now I must go, dear. Shall I call for you to-morrow? MRS. CHEVELEY. Thanks. LADY MARKBY. We might drive in the Park at five. Everything looks so fresh in the Park now! MRS. CHEVELEY. Except the people!