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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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58 [To Cecily.] Dear child, of course you know that Algernon has nothing but his debts to depend upon. But I do not approve of mercenary marriages. When I married Lord Bracknell I had no fortune of any kind. But I never dreamed for a moment of allowing that to stand in my way. Well, I suppose I must give my consent. ALG Thank you, Aunt Augusta. LADY BRA Cecily, you may kiss me! CEC [Kisses her.] Thank you, Lady Bracknell. LADY BRA You may also address me as Aunt Augusta for the future. CEC Thank you, Aunt Augusta. LADY BRA The marriage, I think, had better take place quite soon. ALG Thank you, Aunt Augusta. CEC Thank you, Aunt Augusta. LADY BRA To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage, which I think is never advisable. JACK I beg your pardon for interrupting you, Lady Bracknell, but this engagement is quite out of the question. I am Miss Cardew’s guardian, and she cannot marry without my consent until she comes of age. That consent I absolutely decline to give. LADY BRA Upon what grounds, may I ask? Algernon is an extremely, I may almost say an ostentatiously, eligible young man. He has nothing, but he looks everything. What more can one desire? JACK It pains me very much to have to speak frankly to you, Lady Bracknell, about your nephew, but the fact is that I do not approve at all of his moral character. I suspect him of being untruthful. [Algernon and Cecily look at him in indignant amazement.] LADY BRA Untruthful! My nephew Algernon? Impossible! He is an Oxonian. JACK I fear there can be no possible doubt about the matter. This afternoon, during my temporary absence in London on an important question of romance, he obtained admission to my house by means of the false pretense of being my brother. Under an assumed name he drank, I’ve just been informed by my butler, an |
