Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/187

RhACT IV. . I would rather be your mother—oh! much rather!—than have been always pure. . . . Oh, don't you see? don't you understand? It is my dishonour that has made you so dear to me. It is my disgrace that has bound you so closely to me. It is the price I paid for you—the price of soul and body—that makes me love you as I do. Oh, don't ask me to do this horrible thing. Child of my shame, be still the child of my shame!

GERALD Mother, I didn't know you loved me so much as that. And I will be a better son to you than I have been. And you and I must never leave each other. . . but, mother. . . I can't help it. . . you must become my father's wife. You must marry him. It is your duty.

HESTER [Running forward and embracing MRS. ARBUTHNOT.] No, no; you shall not. That would be real dishonour, the first you have ever known. That would be real disgrace: 169