LORD DARLINGTON. Ah, but I did mean them. [_Takes tea which she offers him_.]
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Gravely_.] I hope not. I should be sorry to have to quarrel with you, Lord Darlington. I like you very much, you know that. But I shouldn’t like you at all if I thought you were what most other men are. Believe me, you are better than most other men, and I sometimes think you pretend to be worse.
LORD DARLINGTON. We all have our little vanities, Lady Windermere.
LADY WINDERMERE. Why do you make that your special one? [_Still seated at table L._]
LORD DARLINGTON. [_Still seated L.C._] Oh, nowadays so many conceited people go about Society pretending to be good, that I think it shows rather a sweet and modest disposition to pretend to be bad. Besides, there is this to be said. If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn’t. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.
LADY WINDERMERE. Don’t you _want_ the world to take you seriously then, Lord Darlington?
LORD DARLINGTON. No, not the world. Who are the people the world takes seriously? All the dull people one can think of, from the Bishops down to the bores. I should like _you_ to take me very seriously, Lady Windermere, _you_ more than any one else in life.
LORD DARLINGTON. [_After a slight hesitation_.] Because I think we might be great friends. Let us be great friends. You may want a friend some day.
LORD DARLINGTON. Oh!—we all want friends at times.
LADY WINDERMERE. I think we’re very good friends already, Lord Darlington. We can always remain so as long as you don’t—
LADY WINDERMERE. Don’t spoil it by saying extravagant silly things to me. You think I am a Puritan, I suppose? Well, I have something of the Puritan in me. I was brought up like that. I am glad of it. My mother died when I was a mere child. I lived always with Lady Julia, my father’s elder sister, you know. She was stern to me, but she taught me what the world is forgetting, the difference that there is between what is right and what is wrong. _She_ allowed of no compromise. _I_ allow of none.
LORD DARLINGTON. My dear Lady Windermere!
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Leaning back on the sofa_.] You look on me as being behind the age.—Well, I am! I should be sorry to be on the same level as an age like this.