Oscar Wilde

A Woman of No Importance Oscar Wilde

LADY CAROLINE. I believe this is the first English country house you have stayed at, MissWorsley?HESTER. Yes, Lady Caroline. LADY CAROLINE. You have no country houses, I am told, in America?HESTER. We have not many. LADY CAROLINE. Have you any country? What we should call country?HESTER. [Smiling.] We have the largest country in the world, Lady Caroline. They used totell us at school that some of our states are as big as France and England put together. LADY CAROLINE. Ah! you must find it very draughty, I should fancy. [To SIR JOHN.] John, youshould have your muffler. What is the use of my always knitting mufflers for you if youwon't wear them?SIR JOHN. I am quite warm, Caroline, I assure you. LADY CAROLINE. I think not, John. Well, you couldn't come to a more charming place thanthis, Miss Worsley, though the house is excessively damp, quite unpardonably damp, anddear Lady Hunstanton is sometimes a little lax about the people she asks down here. [ToSIR JOHN.] Jane mixes too much. Lord Illingworth, of course, is a man of high distinction. Itis a privilege to meet him. And that member of Parliament, Mr. Kettle-SIR JOHN. Kelvil, my love, Kelvil. LADY CAROLINE. He must be quite respectable. One has never heard his name before in thewhole course of one's life, which speaks volumes for a man, nowadays. But Mrs. Allonby ishardly a very suitable person. HESTER. I dislike Mrs. Allonby. I dislike her more than I can say. LADY CAROLINE. I am not sure, Miss Worsley, that foreigners like yourself should cultivatelikes or dislikes about the people they are invited to meet. Mrs. Allonby is very wellborn. She is a niece of Lord Brancaster's. It is said, of course, that she ran away twice before she was married. But you know how unfair people often are. I myself don't believeshe ran away more than once.