The Picture of Dorian Gray Page #3

and faithful in love.

You can't go wrong with this one, sir.

I've never heard a sweeter warbler.

Little yellow bird.

-Late as usual, Harry.

-Please forgive me, Aunt Agatha.

Punctuality is the thief of time, Harry says.

Victoria, darling, how nice!

I love coming to your house, Aunt Agatha.

It's one of the few places

I'm likely to meet my husband.

I'm always dropping it.

Mr. Gray has something terribly important

to tell you, Harry.

We're all dying to learn what it is.

I imagine it can wait

until luncheon is over.

I'm vexed with you, Harry.

Why do you try to persuade Mr. Gray

to give up the East End?

He's a wonderful musician,

and they love his playing.

-The East End is a very important problem.

-Quite so. It's the problem of slavery,

and we try to solve it

by amusing the slaves.

I suspect, Lord Henry,

we're interested in the poor

in order to amuse ourselves.

Especially as we grow older

and are unfit for other amusements.

Lord Henry, I wish you would tell me

how to become young again.

Can you remember any great errors that

you committed in your early days,

-Duchess?

-A great many, I fear.

Then commit them over again.

To regain one's youth,

-one has merely to repeat one's follies.

-A delightful theory.

-A dangerous theory!

-One of the great secrets of life.

Most people die

of a sort of creeping common sense

and discover too late that the only things

one never regrets are one's mistakes.

But surely if one lives for oneself,

one pays a terrible price for doing so.

Yes, we are overcharged for everything,

nowadays.

-One has to pay in other ways than money.

-What sort of ways, Sir Thomas?

I should fancy in remorse, in suffering, in...

Well, in the consciousness of degradation.

No civilized man ever regrets a pleasure

and no uncivilized man

ever knows what a pleasure is.

I know what pleasure is.

It's to adore someone.

ln that case, I think I can guess what it is

you have to tell me that is so important.

But adoring someone is certainly

better than being adored.

Being adored is a nuisance.

You will discover, Dorian,

that women treat us just as

humanity treats its gods.

They worship us and keep bothering us

to do something for them.

Harry, you're incorrigible.

You must admit that women give men

the very gold of their lives.

But they invariably want it back

in such small change.

Women, as a witty Frenchman put it,

inspire us with the desire

to do masterpieces

and always prevent us

from carrying them out.

I don't understand you.

You seem to know us women

awfully well, Lord Henry.

I am analyzing women at present.

The subject is less difficult

than I was led to believe.

Women represent

the triumph of matter over mind,

just as men represent

the triumph of mind over morals.

These views are horrifying, Lady Agatha.

I did not expect to hear

the devil's advocate at your table.

I apologize for the intelligence

of my remarks, Sir Thomas.

I'd forgotten that you were

a member of parliament.

You will forgive me, Lady Agatha,

if I leave at once.

Before the quail, Sir Thomas?

The first quail of the season?

I ordered them especially for you.

No, surely not

before the quail, Sir Thomas.

Think with the Liberals

and eat with the Tories.

lsn't that the rule?

Dear me, how men argue.

I can never make out

what they're talking about.

Do sit down, Sir Thomas.

Lord Henry's ideas are

demoralizing and delightful.

They're not to be taken seriously.

I confess, I never could

resist Lady Agatha's quail.

Well, Dorian, what have you to tell me

that is so important?

From what you said at luncheon,

my guess is that you have fallen in love.

I'm engaged to be married.

Now that we're on our way, Harry,

perhaps you'll tell me where we're going.

-Grosvenor Square, Number Seven.

-It's Dorian we're going to see?

Yes, we're going to pick him up and then

we're going to see the young woman

he's engaged to marry.

-Dorian engaged? To whom, Harry?

-To an actress in a cheap vaudeville.

An actress!

With dyed hair and a painted face?

Don't run down dyed hair

and painted faces, Basil.

-There's an extraordinary charm in them.

-But surely you can't be serious.

-I hope I shall never be more serious.

-But you don't approve.

-You can't possibly.

-I never approve or disapprove of anything.

Dorian Gray falls in love

with a beautiful girl

and proposes to marry her. Why not?

Every experience is of value, and

whatever can be said against marriage,

it's certainly an experience.

Dorian Gray will make this girl his wife,

and six months later

become infatuated with someone else.

-You think he could be so unfaithful?

-Faithfulness is merely laziness.

Number Seven, sir.

I've been watching for you.

Go to Lower Euston Road, Number 22.

Lower Euston Road, sir?

-Lower Euston Road.

-Yes, sir.

They're always surprised

when I give them that address. Hurry.

I want you to get there in time

to meet her before she sings.

I hope you will always be as happy

as you are at this moment, Dorian.

Thank you, Basil. Of course,

our engagement is still a dead secret.

-She's not even told her mother.

-What will your guardian say of it?

Lord Radley is sure to be furious.

But there's nothing he can do.

May I ask you a question, Dorian?

At what particular point

did you mention marriage?

I didn't make any formal proposal, Harry.

I told her I loved her and she said

she was not worthy to be my wife.

-"Not worthy."

-Women are wonderfully practical.

ln situations of that kind,

we often forget to say

anything about marriage,

and they always remind us.

Sibyl has made me forget

your poisonous theories, Harry.

-Which theories, Dorian?

-Your theories about life, about pleasure.

Pleasure is the only thing

worth having a theory about.

It's nature's sign of approval.

When we're happy, we're always good.

When we're good, we're not always happy.

Sibyl is the answer

to all your cynicism, Harry.

I believe you'll understand that

when you see her.

This marriage is quite right.

I didn't think so at first,

but the moment we met her,

I was convinced of it.

She's charming and innocent,

transparently so.

-I knew you would say that.

-She's all that you say.

But I don't agree with Basil.

I believe she loves you so much

you have no need to marry her.

What wickedness

are you contemplating now?

I ought to be angry with you, Harry,

but I'm much too happy.

All I know is that Sibyl is sacred to me.

It's only the sacred things

that are worth touching.

I begin to find you disgusting.

Don't listen to him, Dorian.

Don't worry, Basil.

I'm immune to his ideas now.

ln that case, I needn't tell you how

I should proceed if I were in your place.

What would you do, Harry?

I'm curious to know.

Well, I should invite her to come

to my house to see Basil's portrait.

Then when she said it was time

for her to go home,

I should ask her not to leave.

She'd be shocked, of course.

I'd pretend to be disappointed in her.

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