At last ! What 's the matter ? They were unworthy of you . I will write you some more . Thank Heaven for your madness , your rashness , your imprudence ! They will think that a man once loved a woman more devotedly than ever man loved woman before . But they will not know what man it was . But how will they know ? Write poems to you with reserve ! You ask me that ! Ah , how I wish they had been addressed to an unmarried woman ! how I wish they had ! Have you got sisters-in-law ? I do . Heaven help me , I do — or I did — or Ah , of course they are your husband 's relatives : I forgot that . Forgive me , Aurora . She will not understand them , I think . Oh do n't , do n't think of people in that way . Do n't think of her at all .Aurora : do you remember the evening when I sat here at your feet and read you those poems for the first time ? Yes , you are right . It will be a profanation . To me Teddy is nothing , and Georgina less than nothing . And oh ! how happy I am ! Yes : I deserve that . I think if I were going to the stake with you , I should still be so happy with you that I could hardly feel your danger more than my own . Your heart will tell you at the right time . I have thought deeply over this ; and I know what we two must do , sooner or later . If you did , you would no longer be Aurora . Our course is perfectly simple , perfectly straightforward , perfectly stainless and true . We love one another . I am not ashamed of that : I am ready to go out and proclaim it to all London as simply as I will declare it to your husband when you see — as you soon will see — that this is the only way honorable enough for your feet to tread . Let us go out together to our own house , this evening , without concealment and without shame . Remember ! we owe something to your husband . We are his guests here : he is an honorable man : he has been kind to us : he has perhaps loved you as well as his prosaic nature and his sordid commercial environment permitted . We owe it to him in all honor not to let him learn the truth from the lips of a scandalmonger . Let us go to him now quietly , hand in hand ; bid him farewell ; and walk out of the house without concealment and subterfuge , freely and honestly , in full honor and self-respect . We shall not depart by a hair 's breadth from the ordinary natural current of our lives . We were going to the theatre when the loss of the poems compelled us to take action at once . We shall go to the theatre still ; but we shall leave your diamonds here ; for we cannot afford diamonds , and do not need them . I never thought of doing so , dearest : I know that these trivialities are nothing to you . What was I saying — oh yes . Instead of coming back here from the theatre , you will come with me to my home — now and henceforth our home — and in due course of time , when you are divorced , we shall go through whatever idle legal ceremony you may desire . I attach no importance to the law : my love was not created in me by the law , nor can it be bound or loosed by it . That is simple enough , and sweet enough , is it not ?Here are flowers for you : I have the tickets : we will ask your husband to lend us the carriage to show that there is no malice , no grudge , between us . Come ! Well , let us take that calmly . Let us go to the theatre as if nothing had happened , and tell him when we come back . Now or three hours hence : to-day or to-morrow : what does it matter , provided all is done in honor , without shame or fear ? I tried ; but Lohengrin was sold out for to-night . Can you ask me ? What is there besides Lohengrin that we two could endure , except Candida ? Aurora ! That divinest love poem ! the poem that gave us courage to speak to one another ! that revealed to us what we really felt for one another ! That — You were right . You are like Candida . Aurora : if Candida had loved Eugene she would have gone out into the night with him without a moment 's hesitation . There is nothing wanting in it . What is that ? Let us be just to Georgina , dearest She really sees the world in that way . That is her punishment . My dear : I really do n't care about Georgina or about Teddy . All these squabbles belong to a plane on which I am , as you say , no use . I have counted the cost ; and I do not fear the consequences . After all , what is there to fear ? Where is the difficulty ? What can Georgina do ? What can your husband do ? What can anybody do ? Yes . What can be simpler ? You do n't understand these things , my darling , how could you ? In one respect I am unlike the poet in the play . I have followed the Greek ideal and not neglected the culture of my body . Your husband would make a tolerable second-rate heavy weight if he were in training and ten years younger . As it is , he could , if strung up to a great effort by a burst of passion , give a good account of himself for perhaps fifteen seconds . But I am active enough to keep out of his reach for fifteen seconds ; and after that I should be simply all over him . Do n't ask me , dearest . At all events , I swear to you that you need not be anxious about me . All this alarm is needless , dearest . Believe me , nothing will happen . Your husband knows that I am capable of defending myself . Under such circumstances nothing ever does happen . And of course I shall do nothing . The man who once loved you is sacred to me . No , no .Dearest , dearest : how agitated you are ! how unlike yourself ! All these worries belong to the lower plane . Come up with me to the higher one . The heights , the solitudes , the soul world ! Mr Apjohn !! ! How could you even think of me as Mr Apjohn ? I never think of you as Mrs Bompas : it is always Cand — I mean Aurora , Aurora , Auro — Are you afraid ? Perfect love casteth out fear . That is why I am not afraid . Mrs Bompas : you do not love me . Why do you thank me ? Once or twice in my life I have dreamed that I was exquisitely happy and blessed . But oh ! the misgiving at the first stir of consciousness ! the stab of reality ! the prison walls of the bedroom ! the bitter , bitter disappointment of waking ! And this time ! oh , this time I thought I was awake . I beg your pardon . What is it you want me to do ? I am at your service . I am ready to behave like a gentleman if you will be kind enough to explain exactly how . Go on . Go on quickly . Give me something to think about , or I will — I will — I beg your pardon . I will buy you a new one . Then you will have to do without it : that 's all . If you knew how near I was to breaking Teddy 's pet wife and presenting him with the pieces , you would be thankful that you are alive instead of — of — of howling about five shillings worth of ivory . Damn your fan ! This is some horrible dream . What has become of you ? You are not my Aurora . Do n't drag me down — do n't — do n't . Help me to find the way back to the heights . It seems so to me . I can suggest nothing now . A chill black darkness has fallen : I can see nothing but the ruins of our dream . All I can say is that I am entirely at your service . What do you wish me to do ? No . You said you were the only Aurora in the world . Andoh God ! you were the only Aurora in the world to me . Yes , by heart .Do n't you ? No . Of course I am quite sure . How could I use such a name in a poem ? What does it matter — now ? Oh , if you wish me to tell a lie — Very well . You have broken my spirit and desecrated my dreams . I will lie and protest and stand on my honor : oh , I will play the gentleman , never fear . You are quite right , Mrs Bompas : I beg your pardon . You must excuse my temper . I have got growing pains , I think . The process of growing from romantic boyhood into cynical maturity usually takes fifteen years . When it is compressed into fifteen minutes , the pace is too fast ; and growing pains are the result . Yes : I 'm capable of anything now . I should not have told him the truth by halves ; and now I will not lie by halves . I 'll wallow in the honor of a gentleman . What is it ? The tableau would be complete in its guiltiness . For Heaven 's sake , Mrs Bompas , let that glove alone : you look like a pickpocket . Her husband comes in : a robust , thicknecked , well groomed city man , with a strong chin but a blithering eye and credulous mouth . He has a momentous air , but shows no sign of displeasure : rather the contrary . I am at your service . We have decided not to go . I think I should prefer plenty of room . Manuscripts ? Why , these are my poems . What a shame ! Mrs Bompas has shown them to you ! You must think me an utter ass . I wrote them years ago after reading Swinburne 's Songs Before Sunrise . Nothing would do me then but I must reel off a set of Songs to the Sunrise . Aurora , you know : the rosy fingered Aurora . They 're all about Aurora . When Mrs Bompas told me her name was Aurora , I could n't resist the temptation to lend them to her to read . But I did n't bargain for your unsympathetic eyes . Do you mean to imply that you do n't believe me ? Why not ? I do n't understand . I assure you I am quite at a loss . Can you not be a little more explicit ? Mr Bompas : I pledge you my word you are mistaken . I need not tell you that Mrs Bompas is a lady of stainless honor , who has never cast an unworthy thought on me . The fact that she has shown you my poems — Does not that prove their perfect innocence ? She would have shown them to you at once if she had taken your quite unfounded view of them . Believe me , you are . I assure you , on my honor as a gentleman , that I have never had the slightest feeling for Mrs Bompas beyond the ordinary esteem and regard of a pleasant acquaintance . I should never have dreamt of writing poems to her . The thing is absurd . Well , it happens that I do not admire Mrs Bompas — in that way . There is no need to insult me like this . I assure you , on my honor as a — Mr Bompas : I can make allowances for your jealousy — How can I convince you ? Be reasonable . I tell you my relations with Mrs Bompas are relations of perfect coldness — of indifference — Look here : I 'm not going to stand this . This is ridiculous . I assure you Mrs. Bompas is quite — You call me a swine again and I 'll land you one on the chin that 'll make your head sing for a week . I have got a most frightful bump on the back of my head . Yes . I take it back .I take it all back , all , without reserve . I shall do nothing of the sort . I have steeped myself in lies for your sake ; and the only reward I get is a lump on the back of my head the size of an apple . Now I will go back to the straight path . It 's no use . Your husband is a fool and a brute — I say you are a fool and a brute ; and if you 'll step outside with me I 'll say it again .Those poems were written to your wife , every word of them , and to nobody else .I wrote them because I loved her . I thought her the most beautiful woman in the world ; and I told her so over and over again . I adored her : do you hear ? I told her that you were a sordid commercial chump , utterly unworthy of her ; and so you are . Yes , I do mean it , and a lot more too . I asked Mrs Bompas to walk out of the house with me — to leave you — to get divorced from you and marry me . I begged and implored her to do it this very night . It was her refusal that ended everything between us .What she can see in you , goodness only knows ! What can I do ? Oh , I do n't mind . I am past minding anything . I have grown too fast this evening . This morning I was eighteen . Now I am — confound it ! I 'm quoting that beast of a play I should call it How He Lied to Her Husband .