ACT 2 SCENE 3 Flashcards
CECILY: I have never met any really wicked person before. I feel rather frightened. I am so afraid he will look just like every one else.
You are my little cousin Cecily, I’m sure.
CECILY: You are under some strange mistake. I am not little. In fact, I believe I am more than usually tall for my age. [Algernon is rather taken aback.]
But I am your cousin Cecily. You, I see from your card, are Uncle Jack’s brother, my cousin Ernest, my wicked cousin Ernest.
Oh! I am not really wicked at all, cousin Cecily. You mustn’t think that I am wicked.
CECILY: …
I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.
Oh! Of course I have been rather reckless.
CECILY: I am glad to hear it.
In fact, now that you mention the subject, I have been very bad in my own small way.
CECILY: I don’t think you should be so proud of that, though I am sure it must have been very pleasant.
It is much pleasanter being here with you.
CECILY: I can’t understand how you are here at all. Uncle Jack won’t be back till Monday afternoon.
That is a great disappointment. I am obliged to go up by the first train on Monday morning. I have a business appointment that I am anxious… to miss?
CECILY: Couldn’t you miss is anywhere but in London?
No: the appointment is in London.
CECILY: Well, I know, of course, how important it is not to keep a business engagement…
…
…Uncle Jack arrives. I know he wants to speak to you about your emigrating.
About my what?
CECILY: Your emigrating. He has gone up to buy your outfit.
I certainly wouldn’t let Jack buy my outfit. He has no taste in neckties at all.
CECILY: I don’t think you will require neckties. Uncle Jack is sending you to Australia.
Australia!? I’d sooner die.
CECILY: Well, he said at dinner on Wednesday night, that you would have to choose between this world, the next world, and Australia.
Oh, well! The accounts I have received of Australia and the next world, are not particularly encouraging. This world is good enough for me, cousin Cecily.
CECILY: Yes, but are you good enough for it.
I’m afraid I’m not that. That is why I want you to reform me. You might make that your mission, if you don’t mind, cousin Cecily.
CECILY: I’m afraid I’ve no time this afternoon.
Well, would you mind my reforming myself this afternoon?
CECILY: That is rather Quixotic of you. But I think you should try.
I will. I feel better already.
CECILY: You are looking a little worse.
That is because I am hungry.
CECILY: How thoughtless of me. I should have remembered that when one is going to lead an entirely new life, one requires regular and wholesome meals. Won’t you come in?
Thank you. Might I have a buttonhole first? I never have any appetite unless I have a buttonhole first.
CECILY: A Marechal Niel?
No, I’d sooner have a pink rose.
CECILY: Why?
Because you are like a pink rose, cousin Cecily.
CECILY: Miss Prism says that all good looks are a snare.
They are a snare that every sensible man would like to be caught in.
CECILY: I don’t think it can be right for you to talk to me like that. Miss Prism never says such things to me.
Then Miss Prism is a short-sighted old lady.
You are the prettiest girl I ever saw.
