Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/90

RhACT II. don't complain of their punishment. Let all women who have sinned be punished.

[MRS. ARBUTHNOT ''enters from terrace behind in a cloak with a lace veil over her head. She hears the last words and starts.'']

LADY HUNSTANTON My dear young lady!

HESTER It is right that they should be punished, but don't let them be the only ones to suffer. If a man and woman have sinned, let them both go forth into the desert to love or loathe each other there. Let them both be branded. Set a mark, if you wish, on each, but don't punish the one and let the other go free. Don't have one law for men and another for women. You are unjust to women in England. And till you count what is a shame in a woman to be an infamy in a man, you will always be unjust, and Right, that pillar of fire, and Wrong, that pillar of cloud, will be made dim to your eyes, or be not seen at all, or if seen, not regarded. 72