Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/114

RhACT II. young man would. And now, simply because it turns out that I am the boy's own father and he my own son, you propose practically to ruin his career. That is to say, if I were a perfect stranger, you would allow Gerald to go away with me, but as he is my own flesh and blood you won't. How utterly illogical you are!

MRS. ARBUTHNOT I will not allow him to go.

LORD ILLINGWORTH How can you prevent it? What excuse can you give to him for making him decline such an offer as mine? I won't tell him in what relations I stand to him, I need hardly say. But you daren't tell him. You know that. Look how you have brought him up.

MRS. ARBUTHNOT I have brought him up to be a good man.

LORD ILLINGWORTH Quite so. And what is the result? You have educated him to be your judge if he 96