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A Woman of No Importance

by Oscar Wilde

Pages
about 81
Category
Literature & Fiction
Language
English
Reading time
89 min at 250 wpm
Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 49 min at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

LORD ILLINGWORTH Mr. Tree. SIR JOHN PONTEFRACT Mr. E. Holman Clark. LORD ALFRED RUFFORD Mr. Ernest Lawford. MR. KELVIL, M.P. Mr. Charles Allan. THE VEN. ARCHDEACON DAUBENY, D.D. Mr. Kemble. GERALD ARBUTHNOT Mr. Terry. FARQUHAR (Butler) Mr. Hay. FRANCIS (Footman) Mr. Montague. LADY HUNSTANTON Miss Rose Leclercq. LADY CAROLINE PONTEFRACT Miss Le Thière. LADY STUTFIELD Miss Blanche Horlock. MRS. ALLONBY Mrs. Tree. MISS HESTER WORSLEY Miss Julia Neilson. ALICE (Maid) Miss Kelly. MRS. ARBUTHNOT Mrs. Bernard-Beere.

[SIR JOHN and LADY CAROLINE PONTEFRACT, MISS WORSLEY, on chairs under large yew tree.]

LADY CAROLINE. I believe this is the first English country house you have stayed at, Miss Worsley?

LADY CAROLINE. You have no country houses, I am told, in America?

HESTER. [Smiling.] We have the largest country in the world, Lady Caroline. They used to tell us at school that some of our states are as big as France and England put together.

LADY CAROLINE. Ah! you must find it very draughty, I should fancy. [To SIR JOHN.] John, you should have your muffler. What is the use of my always knitting mufflers for you if you won’t wear them?

LADY CAROLINE. I think not, John. Well, you couldn’t come to a more charming place than this, Miss Worsley, though the house is excessively damp, quite unpardonably damp, and dear Lady Hunstanton is sometimes a little lax about the people she asks down here. [To SIR JOHN.] Jane mixes too much. Lord Illingworth, of course, is a man of high distinction. It is a privilege to meet him. And that member of Parliament, Mr. Kettle—

LADY CAROLINE. He must be quite respectable. One has never heard his name before in the whole course of one’s life, which speaks volumes for a man, nowadays. But Mrs. Allonby is hardly a very suitable person.

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