Cheveley tells Lady Chiltern about Robert’s secret and quickly leaves. Cheveley asks about a missing diamond brooch, but none has been found. When Lady Chiltern comes home, Lord Goring tries to explain to her that all people have weaknesses and imperfections, even the best people and that the only way to understand the world is to look at it with a generous eye, instead of demanding that it conform to a set of rigid expectations. But Lord Goring implies that wealth and power are empty in themselves, and that Robert’s dishonesty has led not to freedom but to his ruin. Robert also describes how Baron Arnheim once intoxicated him with speeches about ambition and power, and admits that his old friend’s words still seem quite true, since power is a means to freedom.

Goring advises Robert to be entirely honest with Lady Chiltern, and to count on her forgiveness but Robert explains despairingly that his wife does not tolerate imperfections, and would certainly never forgive him for an error as grave as the one he committed. The next morning, Robert talks with Lord Goring and asks him for help. Cheveley and retract his promise: Lady Chiltern has made it clear to him that their marriage hangs in the balance if he does not do the right thing. He tries to defend his decision, but finally agrees to write Mrs. Lady Chiltern senses some sort of foul play, and asks Robert for an explanation. Cheveley tells Lady Chiltern about Robert’s change of heart regarding the Argentine Canal, and triumphantly takes her leave. Robert’s sister Mabel finds a brooch in the couch cushions, and Lord Goring asks to hold on to it for the moment. But the threat of disgrace is too devastating, and Robert finally agrees to support the scheme.

Cheveley to deliver a cynical speech about the hypocrisy of English morality.

At first Robert refuses proudly, prompting Mrs. The letter would bring about Robert’s social and political ruin. Cheveley will make public a letter in which he sold a government secret. If he does not speak of it positively to the House of Commons, Mrs. Cheveley takes the opportunity to reveal that she plans to blackmail Robert into supporting a fraudulent project called the Argentine Canal scheme. Soon most of the guests go down to dinner. Cheveley, who charms him with mysterious pronouncements on romance, affectation, and politics, and hints that she must ask him for a favor.

Sir Robert Chiltern comes in and meets Mrs. Marchmont and Lady Basildon, conservative politicians like Lord Caversham, and clever dandies like Lord Goring. The curtain lifts to show a large, beautifully appointed drawing room where Lady Chiltern is receiving her guests: beautiful socialites like Mrs.

An ideal husband play