Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/191

RhACT IV. you I spoke, for you alone. Oh, say something, mother. Have I but found one love to lose another? Don't tell me that. O mother, you are cruel. [Gets up and flings himself sobbing on a sofa.]

MRS. ARBUTHNOT [To HESTER.] But has he found indeed another love?

HESTER You know I have loved him always.

MRS. ARBUTHNOT But we are very poor.

HESTER Who, being loved, is poor? Oh, no one. I hate my riches. They are a burden. Let him share it with me.

MRS. ARBUTHNOT But we are disgraced. We rank among the outcasts. Gerald is nameless. The sins of the parents should be visited on the children. It is God's law. 173