Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/133

RhACT III. LORD ILLINGWORTH One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.

GERALD Love is a very wonderful thing, isn't it?

LORD ILLINGWORTH When one is in love one begins by deceiving oneself. And one ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance. But a really grande passion is comparatively rare nowadays. It is the privilege of people who have nothing to do. That is the one use of the idle classes in a country, and the only possible explanation of us Harfords.

GERALD Harfords, Lord Illingworth?

LORD ILLINGWORTH That is my family name. You should study the Peerage, Gerald. It is the one book a young man about town should know thoroughly, and it is the best thing in fiction the English have ever done. 115