Lady Chiltern monologue (Act 1) — An Ideal Husband

That makes no matter. She must know at once that she has been mistaken in you—and that you are not a man to do anything base or underhand or dishonourable. Write here, Robert. Write that you decline to support this scheme of hers, as you hold it to be a dishonest scheme. Yes—write the word dishonest. She knows what that word means. [SIR ROBERT CHILTERN _sits down and writes a letter_. _His wife takes it up and reads it_.] Yes; that will do. [_Rings bell_.] And now the envelope. [_He writes the envelope slowly_. _Enter_ MASON.] Have this letter sent at once to Claridge’s Hotel. There is no answer. [_Exit_ MASON. LADY CHILTERN _kneels down beside her husband_, _and puts her arms around him_.] Robert, love gives one an instinct to things. I feel to-night that I have saved you from something that might have been a danger to you, from something that might have made men honour you less than they do. I don’t think you realise sufficiently, Robert, that you have brought into the political life of our time a nobler atmosphere, a finer attitude towards life, a freer air of purer aims and higher ideals—I know it, and for that I love you, Robert.