Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/79

RhACT II. your conception of the Ideal Husband. I think it would be so very, very helpful.

MRS. ALLONBY The Ideal Husband? There couldn't be such a thing. The institution is wrong.

LADY STUTFIELD The Ideal Man, then, in his relations to us.

LADY CAROLINE He would probably be extremely realistic.

MRS. ALLONBY The Ideal Man! Oh, the Ideal Man should talk to us as if we were goddesses, and treat us as if we were children. He should refuse all our serious requests, and gratify every one of our whims. He should encourage us to have caprices, and forbid us to have missions. He should always say much more than he means, and always mean much more than he says.

LADY HUNSTANTON But how could he do both, dear? 61