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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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41 GWEN Then that is all quite settled, is it not? CEC I hope so. [A pause. They both sit down together.] GWEN Perhaps this might be a favourable opportunity for my mentioning who I am. My father is Lord Bracknell. You have never heard of papa, I suppose? CEC I don’t think so. GWEN Outside the family circle, papa, I am glad to say, is entirely unknown. I think that is quite as it should be. The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man. And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not? And I don’t like that. It makes men so very attractive. Cecily, mamma, whose views on education are remarkably strict, has brought me up to be extremely short- sighted; it is part of her system; so do you mind my looking at you through my glasses? CEC Oh! not at all, Gwendolen. I am very fond of being looked at. GWEN [After examining Cecily carefully through a lorgnette.] You are here on a short visit, I suppose. CEC Oh no! I live here. GWEN [Severely.] Really? Your mother, no doubt, or some female relative of advanced years, resides here also? CEC Oh no! I have no mother, nor, in fact, any relations. GWEN Indeed? CEC My dear guardian, with the assistance of Miss Prism, has the arduous task of looking after me. GWEN Your guardian? CEC Yes, I am Mr. Worthing’s ward. GWEN Oh! It is strange he never mentioned to me that he had a ward. How secretive of him! He grows more interesting hourly. I am not sure, however, that the news inspires me with feelings of unmixed delight. [Rising and going to her.] I am very fond of you, Cecily; I have liked you ever since I met you! But I am bound to state that now that I know that you are Mr. Worthing’s ward, I cannot help expressing a wish you were-well |
