Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/70

RhACT II. respectable girl, in order to teach them not to meddle with other people's property.

MRS. ALLONBY I don't think that we should ever be spoken of as other people's property. All men are married women's property. That is the only true definition of what married women's property really is. But we don't belong to any one.

LADY STUTFIELD Oh, I am so very, very glad to hear you say so.

LADY HUNSTANTON But do you really think, dear Caroline, that legislation would improve matters in any way? I am told that, nowadays, all the married men live like bachelors, and all the bachelors like married men.

MRS. ALLONBY I certainly never know one from the other.

LADY STUTFIELD Oh, I think one can always know at 52