Pagina 9 di 490

"Not at all," answered Lord Henry, "not at all, my dear Basil.

You seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of

marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely

necessary for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my

wife never knows what I am doing. When we meet-we do meet

occasionally, when we dine out together, or go down to the

Duke's-we tell each other the most absurd stories with the most

serious faces. My wife is very good at it-much better, in fact,

than I am. She never gets confused over her dates, and I always

do. But when she does find me out, she makes no row at all. I

sometimes wish she would; but she merely laughs at me."