The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: 150+ Titles in One Edition. Oscar Wilde

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СКАЧАТЬ as I do. Oh, don’t ask me to do this horrible thing. Child of my shame, be still the child of my shame!

      GERALD. Mother, I didn’t know you loved me so much as that. And I will be a better son to you than I have been. And you and I must never leave each other … but, mother … I can’t help it … you must become my father’s wife. You must marry him. It is your duty.

      HESTER. [Running forwards and embracing MRS. ARBUTHNOT.] No, no; you shall not. That would be real dishonour, the first you have ever known. That would be real disgrace: 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.

      GERALD. Hester, Hester, what shall I do?

      HESTER. Do you respect the man who is your father?

      GERALD. Respect him? I despise him! He is infamous.

      HESTER. I thank you for saving me from him last night.

      GERALD. Ah, that is nothing. I would die to save you. But you don’t tell me what to do now!

      HESTER. Have I not thanked you for saving ME?

      GERALD. But what should I do?

      HESTER. Ask your own heart, not mine. I never had a mother to save, or shame.

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. He is hard - he is hard. Let me go away.

      GERALD. [Rushes over and kneels down bedside his mother.] Mother, forgive me: I have been to blame.

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Don’t kiss my hands: they are cold. My heart is cold: something has broken it.

      HESTER, Ah, don’t say that. Hearts live by being wounded. Pleasure may turn a heart to stone, riches may make it callous, but sorrow - oh, sorrow cannot break it. Besides, what sorrows have you now? Why, at this moment you are more dear to him than ever, DEAR though you have BEEN, and oh! how dear you HAVE been always. Ah! be kind to him.

      GERALD. You are my mother and my father all in one. I need no second parent. It was for 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.

      HESTER. I was wrong. God’s law is only Love.

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. [Rises, and taking HESTER by the hand, goes slowly over to where GERALD is lying on the sofa with his head buried in his hands. She touches him and he looks up.] Gerald, I cannot give you a father, but I have brought you a wife.

      GERALD. Mother, I am not worthy either of her or you.

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. So she comes first, you are worthy. And when you are away, Gerald … with … her - oh, think of me sometimes. Don’t forget me. And when you pray, pray for me. We should pray when we are happiest, and you will be happy, Gerald.

      HESTER. Oh, you don’t think of leaving us?

      GERALD. Mother, you won’t leave us?

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. I might bring shame upon you!

      GERALD. Mother!

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. For a little then: and if you let me, near you always.

      HESTER. [To MRS. ARBUTHNOT.] Come out with us to the garden.

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Later on, later on. [Exeunt HESTER and GERALD. MRS. ARBUTHNOT goes towards door L.C. Stops at looking-glass over mantelpiece and looks into it. Enter ALICE R.C.]

      ALICE. A gentleman to see you, ma’am.

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Say I am not at home. Show me the card. [Takes card from salver and looks at it.] Say I will not see him.

      [LORD ILLINGWORTH enters. MRS. ARBUTHNOT sees him in the glass and starts, but does not turn round. Exit ALICE.] What can you have to say to me to-day, George Harford? You can have nothing to say to me. You must leave this house.

      LORD ILLINGWORTH. Rachel, Gerald knows everything about you and me now, so some arrangement must be come to that will suit us all three. I assure you, he will find in me the most charming and generous of fathers.

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. My son may come in at any moment. I saved you last night. I may not be able to save you again. My son feels my dishonour strongly, terribly strongly. I beg you to go.

      LORD ILLINGWORTH. [Sitting down.] Last night was excessively unfortunate. That silly Puritan girl making a scene merely because I wanted to kiss her. What harm is there in a kiss?

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. [Turning round.] A kiss may ruin a human life,

       George Harford. I know that. I know that too well.

      LORD ILLINGWORTH. We won’t discuss that at present. What is of importance to-day, as yesterday, is still our son. I am extremely fond of him, as you know, and odd though it may seem to you, I admired his conduct last night immensely. He took up the cudgels for that pretty prude with wonderful promptitude. He is just what I should have liked a son of mine to be. Except that no son of mine should ever take the side of the Puritans: that is always an error. Now, what I propose is this.

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Lord Illingworth, no proposition of yours interests me.

      LORD ILLINGWORTH. According to our ridiculous English laws, I can’t legitimise Gerald. But I can leave him my property. Illingworth is entailed, of course, but it is a tedious barrack of a place. He can have Ashby, which is much prettier, Harborough, which has the best shooting in the north of England, and the house in St. James Square. What more can a gentleman require in this world?

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Nothing more, I am quite sure.

      LORD ILLINGWORTH. As for a title, a title is really rather a СКАЧАТЬ