MRS. ERLYNNE. Silence! I’m here to save you, if I can. But I fear it is too late! There! [_Points to the curtain across the window_.] The first chance you have, slip out, if you ever get a chance! LADY WINDERMERE. But you? MRS. ERLYNNE. Oh! never mind me. I’ll face them. [LADY WINDERMERE _hides herself behind the curtain_.] LORD AUGUSTUS. [_Outside_.] Nonsense, dear Windermere, you must not leave me! MRS. ERLYNNE. Lord Augustus! Then it is I who am lost! [_Hesitates for a moment_, then _looks round and sees door R._, _and exits through it_.] [_Enter_ LORD DARLINGTON, MR. DUMBY, LORD WINDERMERE, LORD AUGUSTUS LORTON, _and_ MR. CECIL GRAHAM. DUMBY. What a nuisance their turning us out of the club at this hour! It’s only two o’clock. [_Sinks into a chair_.] The lively part of the evening is only just beginning. [_Yawns and closes his eyes_.] LORD WINDERMERE. It is very good of you, Lord Darlington, allowing Augustus to force our company on you, but I’m afraid I can’t stay long. LORD DARLINGTON. Really! I am so sorry! You’ll take a cigar, won’t you? LORD WINDERMERE. Thanks! [_Sits down_.] LORD AUGUSTUS. [_To_ LORD WINDERMERE.] My dear boy, you must not dream of going. I have a great deal to talk to you about, of demmed importance, too. [_Sits down with him at L. table_.] CECIL GRAHAM. Oh! We all know what that is! Tuppy can’t talk about anything but Mrs. Erlynne. LORD WINDERMERE. Well, that is no business of yours, is it, Cecil? CECIL GRAHAM. None! That is why it interests me. My own business always bores me to death. I prefer other people’s. LORD DARLINGTON. Have something to drink, you fellows. Cecil, you’ll have a whisky and soda? CECIL GRAHAM. Thanks. [_Goes to table with_ LORD DARLINGTON.] Mrs. Erlynne looked very handsome to-night, didn’t she? LORD DARLINGTON. I am not one of her admirers. CECIL GRAHAM. I usen’t to be, but I am now. Why! she actually made me introduce her to poor dear Aunt Caroline. I believe she is going to lunch there. LORD DARLINGTON. [_In Purple_.] No? CECIL GRAHAM. She is, really. LORD DARLINGTON. Excuse me, you fellows. I’m going away to-morrow. And I have to write a few letters. [_Goes to writing table and sits down_.] DUMBY. Clever woman, Mrs. Erlynne. CECIL GRAHAM. Hallo, Dumby! I thought you were asleep. DUMBY. I am, I usually am! LORD AUGUSTUS. A very clever woman. Knows perfectly well what a demmed fool I am—knows it as well as I do myself. [CECIL GRAHAM _comes towards him laughing_.] Ah, you may laugh, my boy, but it is a great thing to come across a woman who thoroughly understands one. DUMBY. It is an awfully dangerous thing. They always end by marrying one. CECIL GRAHAM. But I thought, Tuppy, you were never going to see her again! Yes! you told me so yesterday evening at the club. You said you’d heard— [_Whispering to him_.] LORD AUGUSTUS. Oh, she’s explained that. CECIL GRAHAM. And the Wiesbaden affair?