LADY WINDERMERE. Gerard, after my dear father. MRS. ERLYNNE. [_Laying the photograph down_.] Really? LADY WINDERMERE. Yes. If it had been a girl, I would have called it after my mother. My mother had the same name as myself, Margaret. MRS. ERLYNNE. My name is Margaret too. LADY WINDERMERE. Indeed! MRS. ERLYNNE. Yes. [_Pause_.] You are devoted to your mother’s memory, Lady Windermere, your husband tells me. LADY WINDERMERE. We all have ideals in life. At least we all should have. Mine is my mother. MRS. ERLYNNE. Ideals are dangerous things. Realities are better. They wound, but they’re better. LADY WINDERMERE. [_Shaking her head_.] If I lost my ideals, I should lose everything. MRS. ERLYNNE. Everything? LADY WINDERMERE. Yes. [_Pause_.] MRS. ERLYNNE. Did your father often speak to you of your mother? LADY WINDERMERE. No, it gave him too much pain. He told me how my mother had died a few months after I was born. His eyes filled with tears as he spoke. Then he begged me never to mention her name to him again. It made him suffer even to hear it. My father—my father really died of a broken heart. His was the most ruined life know. MRS. ERLYNNE. [_Rising_.] I am afraid I must go now, Lady Windermere. LADY WINDERMERE. [_Rising_.] Oh no, don’t. MRS. ERLYNNE. I think I had better. My carriage must have come back by this time. I sent it to Lady Jedburgh’s with a note. LADY WINDERMERE. Arthur, would you mind seeing if Mrs. Erlynne’s carriage has come back? MRS. ERLYNNE. Pray don’t trouble, Lord Windermere. LADY WINDERMERE. Yes, Arthur, do go, please. [LORD WINDERMERE _hesitated for a moment and looks at_ MRS. ERLYNNE. _She remains quite impassive_. _He leaves the room_.] [_To_ MRS. ERLYNNE.] Oh! What am I to say to you? You saved me last night? [_Goes towards her_.] MRS. ERLYNNE. Hush—don’t speak of it. LADY WINDERMERE. I must speak of it. I can’t let you think that I am going to accept this sacrifice. I am not. It is too great. I am going to tell my husband everything. It is my duty. MRS. ERLYNNE. It is not your duty—at least you have duties to others besides him. You say you owe me something? LADY WINDERMERE. I owe you everything. MRS. ERLYNNE. Then pay your debt by silence. That is the only way in which it can be paid. Don’t spoil the one good thing I have done in my life by telling it to any one. Promise me that what passed last night will remain a secret between us. You must not bring misery into your husband’s life. Why spoil his love? You must not spoil it. Love is easily killed. Oh! how easily love is killed. Pledge me your word, Lady Windermere, that you will never tell him. I insist upon it. LADY WINDERMERE. [_With bowed head_.] It is your will, not mine. MRS. ERLYNNE. Yes, it is my will. And never forget your child—I like to think of you as a mother. I like you to think of yourself as one.