Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/188

RhACT IV. the first to touch you. Leave him and come with me. There are other countries than England. . . . Oh! other countries over sea, better, wiser, and less unjust lands. The world is very wide and very big.

MRS. ARBUTHNOT No, not for me. For me the world is shrivelled to a palm's breadth, and where I walk there are thorns.

HESTER It shall not be so. We shall somewhere find green valleys and fresh waters, and if we weep, well, we shall weep together. Have we not both loved him?

GERALD Hester!

HESTER [Waving him back.] Don't, don't! You cannot love me at all, unless you love her also. You cannot honour me, unless she's holier to you. In her all womanhood is martyred. Not she alone, but all of us are stricken in her house. 170