Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/159

RhACT III. MRS. ARBUTHNOT What this man has been, he is now, and will be always.

GERALD Mother, tell me what Lord Illingworth did? If he did anything shameful, I will not go away with him. Surely you know me well enough for that?

MRS. ARBUTHNOT Gerald, come near to me. Quite close to me, as you used to do when you were a little boy, when you were mother's own boy. [GERALD ''sits down beside his mother. She runs her fingers through his hair, and strokes his hands.''] Gerald, there was a girl once, she was very young, she was little over eighteen at the time. George Harford—that was Lord Illingworth's name then—George Harford met her. She knew nothing about life. He—knew everything. He made this girl love him. He made her love him so much that she left her father's house with him one morning. She loved him so much, and he had 141