FIRST ACT
PART 2
[Enter Lane.]
LANE.
Lady Bracknell and Miss Fairfax.
[Algernon goes forward to meet them. Enter Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen.]
LADY BRACKNELL.
Good afternoon, dear Algernon, I hope you are behaving very well.
ALGERNON.
I'm feeling very well, Aunt Augusta.
LADY BRACKNELL.
That's not quite the same thing. In fact the two things rarely go together. [Sees Jack and bows to him with icy coldness.]
ALGERNON.
[To Gwendolen.] Dear me, you are smart!
GWENDOLEN.
I am always smart! Am I not, Mr. Worthing?
JACK.
You're quite perfect, Miss Fairfax.
GWENDOLEN.
Oh! I hope I am not that. It would leave no room for developments, and I intend to develop in many directions. [Gwendolen and Jack sit down together in the corner.]
LADY BRACKNELL.
I'm sorry if we are a little late, Algernon, but I was obliged to call on dear Lady Harbury. I hadn't been there since her poor husband's death. I never saw a woman so altered; she looks quite twenty years younger. And now I'll have a cup of tea, and one of those nice cucumber sandwiches you promised me.
ALGERNON.
Certainly, Aunt Augusta. [Goes over to tea-table.]
LADY BRACKNELL.
Won't you come and sit here, Gwendolen?
GWENDOLEN.
Thanks, mamma, I'm quite comfortable where I am.
ALGERNON.
[Picking up empty plate in horror.] Good heavens! Lane! Why are there no cucumber sandwiches? I ordered them specially.
LANE.
[Gravely.] There were no cucumbers in the market this morning, sir. I went down twice.
