PHIPPS. Yes, my lord. [_Exit_.] LORD GORING. Robert, you don’t mind my sending you away? SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Arthur, you must let me stay for five minutes. I have made up my mind what I am going to do to-night in the House. The debate on the Argentine Canal is to begin at eleven. [_A chair falls in the drawing-room_.] What is that? LORD GORING. Nothing. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I heard a chair fall in the next room. Some one has been listening. LORD GORING. No, no; there is no one there. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. There is some one. There are lights in the room, and the door is ajar. Some one has been listening to every secret of my life. Arthur, what does this mean? LORD GORING. Robert, you are excited, unnerved. I tell you there is no one in that room. Sit down, Robert. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Do you give me your word that there is no one there? LORD GORING. Yes. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Your word of honour? [_Sits down_.] LORD GORING. Yes. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Rises_.] Arthur, let me see for myself. LORD GORING. No, no. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. If there is no one there why should I not look in that room? Arthur, you must let me go into that room and satisfy myself. Let me know that no eavesdropper has heard my life’s secret. Arthur, you don’t realise what I am going through. LORD GORING. Robert, this must stop. I have told you that there is no one in that room—that is enough. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [_Rushes to the door of the room_.] It is not enough. I insist on going into this room. You have told me there is no one there, so what reason can you have for refusing me? LORD GORING. For God’s sake, don’t! There is some one there. Some one whom you must not see. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Ah, I thought so! LORD GORING. I forbid you to enter that room. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Stand back. My life is at stake. And I don’t care who is there. I will know who it is to whom I have told my secret and my shame. [_Enters room_.] LORD GORING. Great heavens! his own wife! [SIR ROBERT CHILTERN _comes back_, _with a look of scorn and anger on his face_.] SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. What explanation have you to give me for the presence of that woman here? LORD GORING. Robert, I swear to you on my honour that that lady is stainless and guiltless of all offence towards you. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. She is a vile, an infamous thing! LORD GORING. Don’t say that, Robert! It was for your sake she came here. It was to try and save you she came here. She loves you and no one else. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. You are mad. What have I to do with her intrigues with you? Let her remain your mistress! You are well suited to each other. She, corrupt and shameful—you, false as a friend, treacherous as an enemy even— LORD GORING. It is not true, Robert. Before heaven, it is not true. In her presence and in yours I will explain all. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Let me pass, sir. You have lied enough upon your word of honour.