“I must decline your invitation owing to a subsequent engagement.”

“An admirable idea! Mr. Worthing, there is just one question I would like to be permitted to put to you. Where is your brother Ernest? We are both engaged to be married to your brother Ernest, so it is a matter of some importance to us to know where your brother Ernest is at present.”

“I am afraid it is quite clear, Cecily, that neither of us is engaged to be married to any one.”

“The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.”

“Well, I know, of course, how important it is not to keep a business engagement, if one wants to retain any sense of the beauty of life.”

“Nothing annoys people so much as not receiving invitations.”

“I don’t write this letter to put bitterness into your heart, but to pluck it out of mine. For my own sake I must forgive you.”