Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/174

RhACT IV. ALICE Mrs. Arbuthnot's compliments, my lady, but she has a bad headache, and cannot see any one this morning.

LADY HUNSTANTON [Rising.] A bad headache! I am so sorry! Perhaps you'll bring her up to Hunstanton this afternoon, if she is better, Gerald.

GERALD I am afraid not this afternoon, Lady Hunstanton.

LADY HUNSTANTON Well, to-morrow, then. Ah, if you had a father, Gerald, he wouldn't let you waste your life here. He would send you off with Lord Illingworth at once. But mothers are so weak. They give up to their sons in everything. We are all heart, all heart. Come, dear, I must call at the rectory and inquire for Mrs. Daubeny, who, I am afraid, is far from well. It is wonderful how the Archdeacon bears up, quite wonderful. He 156