The Picture of Dorian Gray

Lord Fermor, a genial if somewhat rough-mannered old bachelor, whom the outside world called selfish because it deri

ought at the time, and on succeeding some months later to the title, had set himself to the serious study of the great aristocratic art of doing absolutely nothing. He had two large town houses, but preferred to live in chambers as it was less trouble, and took most of his meals at his club. He paid some attention to the management of his collieries in the Midland counties, excusing himself for this taint of industry on the ground that the one advantage of having coal was that it enabled a ge

a cheroot and grumbling over The Times. "Well, Harry," said the old gentleman, "what brings y

ure you, Uncle George. I want

ace. "Well, sit down and tell me all about it. Young

their bills who want that, Uncle George, and I never pay mine. Credit is the capital of a younger son, and one lives charmingly upon it. Besides, I always

n the Diplomatic, things were much better. But I hear they let them in now by examination. What can you expect? Examinations, sir, are pure

ong to Blue Books, Uncle Geor

?" asked Lord Fermor, knitt

a Devereux, Lady Margaret Devereux. I want you to tell me about his mother. What was she like? Whom did she marry? You have known ne

I remember the whole thing as if it happened yesterday. The poor chap was killed in a duel at Spa a few months after the marriage. There was an ugly story about it. They said Kelso got some rascally adventurer, some Belgian brute, to insult his son-in-law in public-paid him, sir, to do it, paid him-and that the fellow spitted his man as if he had been a pigeon. The thing wa

d-looking," ass

er, through her grandfather. Her grandfather hated Kelso, thought him a mean dog. He was, too. Came to Madrid once when I was there. Egad, I was ashamed of him. The Queen used to ask me about the English nob

will be well off. He is not of age yet. He has Selby, I k

was romantic, though. All the women of that family were. The men were a poor lot, but, egad! the women were wonderful. Carlington went on his knees to her. Told me so himself. She laughed at him, and there wasn't a girl i

le to marry Americans j

he world, Harry," said Lord Fermor

g is on the

, I am told," mu

e capital at a steeplechase. They take things

grumbled the old gentl

ever at concealing their parents, as English women a

ork-packers

. I am told that pork-packing is the most luc

he pr

tiful. Most American women do.

their own country? They are always telli

nry. "Good-bye, Uncle George. I shall be late for lunch, if I stop any longer. Thanks for giving me the i

you lunch

asked myself and Mr. Gray.

h her charity appeals. I am sick of them. Why, the good woman think

have any effect. Philanthropic people lose all sense o

servant. Lord Henry passed up the low arcade into Burlington S

influence. No other activity was like it. To project one's soul into some gracious form, and let it tarry there for a moment; to hear one's own intellectual views echoed back to one with all the added music of passion and youth; to convey one's temperament into another as though it were a subtle fluid or a strange perfume: there was a real joy in that-perhaps the most satisfying joy left to us in an age so limited and vulgar as our own, an age grossly carnal in its pleasures, and grossly common in its aims.... He was a marvellous type, too, this lad, whom by so curious a chance he had met in Basil's studio, or could be fashioned into a marvellous type, at any rate. Grace was his, and the white purity of boyhood, and beauty such as old Greek marbles kept for us. There was nothing that one could not do with him. He could be made a Titan or a toy. What a pity it was that such beauty was destined to fade! ... And Basil? From a psychological point of view, how interesting he was! The new manner in art, the fresh mode of looking at life, suggested so strangely by the merely visible

and, smiling to himself, turned back. When he entered the somewhat sombre hall, the butler told him that

," cried his aunt, sh

Radical member of Parliament, who followed his leader in public life and in private life followed the best cooks, dining with the Tories and thinking with the Liberals, in accordance with a wise and well-known rule. The post on her left was occupied by Mr. Erskine of Treadley, an old gentleman of considerable charm and culture, who had fallen, however, into bad habits of silence, having, as he explained once to Lady Agatha, said everything that he had to say before he was thirty. His own neighbour was Mrs. Vande

duchess, nodding pleasantly to him across the table. "Do y

de up her mind to pro

Lady Agatha. "Really, so

father keeps an American dry-goods store,"

dy suggested pork-p

" asked the duchess, raising her large h

ered Lord Henry, helpin

ss looked

ispered Lady Agatha. "He neve

exhaust a subject, he exhausted his listeners. The duchess sighed and exercised her privilege of interruption. "I wish to g

discovered," said Mr. Erskine; "I myself w

y. "I must confess that most of them are extremely pretty. And they dress well,

go to Paris," chuckled Sir Thomas, who had a

Americans go to when they

erica," murmur

" he said to Lady Agatha. "I have travelled all over it in cars provided by the directors,

to be educated?" asked Mr. Erskine plai

ad about them. The Americans are an extremely interesting people. They are absolutely reasonable. I think that is their distingu

, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something

you," said Sir Thomas

" murmured Mr. Ers

y well in their way...

. Well, the way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test reality we must se

ng about. Oh! Harry, I am quite vexed with you. Why do you try to persuade our nice Mr. Dorian Gra

enry, smiling, and he looked down the ta

ppy in Whitechapel,"

h that. It is too ugly, too horrible, too distressing. There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with p

ortant problem," remarked Sir Thom

It is the problem of slavery, and we t

m keenly. "What change do y

mplation. But, as the nineteenth century has gone bankrupt through an over-expenditure of sympathy, I would suggest that we should appeal to s

esponsibilities," venture

ave," echoed

too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cavema

guilty when I came to see your dear aunt, for I take no interest at all in the E

coming, Duchess," r

n like myself blushes, it is a very bad sign. Ah! Lord He

at error that you committed in your early days, Du

ny, I fear,

gravely. "To get back one's youth, on

she exclaimed. "I mus

ight lips. Lady Agatha shook her head, but cou

most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when i

an round

mocked the slow Silenus for being sober. Facts fled before her like frightened forest things. Her white feet trod the huge press at which wise Omar sits, till the seething grape-juice rose round her bare limbs in waves of purple bubbles, or crawled in red foam over the vat's black, dripping, sloping sides. It was an extraordinary improvisation. He felt that the eyes of Dorian Gray were fixed on him, and the consciousness that a

y husband at the club, to take him to some absurd meeting at Willis's Rooms, where he is going to be in the chair. If I am late he is sure to be furious, and I couldn't have a scene in this bonnet. It is far too fragile. A harsh word would rui

ver anybody, Duchess," s

cried; "so mind you come"; and she swept out of th

rskine moved round, and taking a chair cl

y," he said; "why d

would be as lovely as a Persian carpet and as unreal. But there is no literary public in England for anything except newspa

ions, but I gave them up long ago. And now, my dear young friend, if you will allow

said," smiled Lord Henr

imarily responsible. But I should like to talk to you about life. The generation into which I was born was tedious. Some day, when you are tire

ey would be a great privilege. It has

eous bow. "And now I must bid good-bye to your excellent aunt.

you, Mr.

airs. We are practising for a

d rose. "I am going t

Dorian Gray touched him on the arm.

ed Basil Hallward to go and s

with you. Do let me. And you will promise to talk to

d Henry, smiling. "All I want now is to look at life.