There was one thing she [Constance Lloyd] had been on the verge of telling Mr. Wilde again and again. Now was the time for her to say it, rather, to write it, which made it easier: "I am afraid you and I disagree in our opinion on art, for I hold that there is no perfect art without perfect morality, whilst you say they are distinct and separable things."
They differed in the one belief that was fundamental to Wilde both as artist and as man, yet by the close of the month the two had announced their engagement...
If there was anything of which Constance was aware it was of the fact that she had captured the most coveted bachelor in the realm. She had seen how the women pursued him at his lectures and made themselves captivating for his sake. She had also noticed, however, that while paying them pretty compliments and behaving toward them more familiarly than other men would have dared, there was something impersonal in his familiarity. They might have been pretty kittens, delightful to play with but soon forgotten.
As for Constance, the moment Oscar declared himself she dropped the veil of reserve that propriety had placed between them and revealed herself glowing with love she had had to repress....She made no secret of the passion she felt for him. Innocent as a child, she was overpowered by the surge of emotions felt for the first time, and disclosed her whole heart to him. Moved by her devotion he confided in her unreservedly. He told her of his peccadillos - so few for his temptations - and perhaps magnified them for the delightful pain of her forgiveness.
"My darling love," she answered. "You take all my strength away. I have no power to do anything but just love you when you are with me...Do believe that I love you most passionately with all the strength of my heart and mind...I am content to let the past be buried; it does not belong to me."
For a man as self-indulgent as Wilde there was danger in her generous willingness to forgive. A soft and yielding woman like Constance provided no bulwark against the amorality fostered in the Wilde household and encouraged by the classical exemplars at Magdalen. Constance, nevertheless, felt that she possessed a strength superior to any moral curb. "For the future tust and faith will come," she assured him, "and when I have you for my husband, I will hold you fast with chains of love and devotion so that you will never leave me, or love anyone as long as I can love and comfort..."
Little did she realize that chains cannot bind love, especially the love of one who held that "when a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her - except continue to love her."
Frances Winwar
Oscar Wilde and the Yellow 'Nineties
Blue Ribbon Books, Garden City, New York
Copyright, 1941, by Harper & Brothers
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