After a while
Dorian Gray looked up. ‘You have explained me to myself, Harry,’ he said slowly.
‘How well you know me! But we won’t talk of this again. It’ been a wonderful
lesson for me. That’s all!’
When Lord Henry had left, Dorian uncovered the picture again. He had to choose between a good
life and a bad life, he thought. But then he realized that, in fact, he had
already chosen. He would stay young forever and enjoy every wild pleasure that
life could give him. The face in the picture would grow old and ugly and unkind,
but he would stay beautiful forever. He covered the pictured again and smiled.
An hour later he was at Lord Henry’s house, and Lord Henry was smiling at his
side.
While Dorian Gray was having breakfast the next morning, Basil Hallward came to see him. ‘At
last I’ve found you, Dorian,’ he said seriously. ‘I came last night, but they
told me that you’d gone out to dinner with friends. I knew it wasn’t true, of
course. I wanted to tell you how sorry I was about Sybil Vane. Poor girl!’ ‘My
dear Basil,’ said Dorian. He looked bored. ‘I was at Lord Henry’s house last
night. It was a very amusing evening.’
