The Importance of Being Earnest

Algernon.
Thank you. Might I have a buttonhole first? I never have any 
appetite unless I have a buttonhole first. 
Cecily.
A Marechal Niel? [Picks up scissors.] 
Algernon.
No, I’d sooner have a pink rose. 
Cecily.
Why? [Cuts a flower.] 
Algernon.
Because you are like a pink rose, Cousin Cecily. 
Cecily.
I don’t think it can be right for you to talk to me like that. Miss Prism 
never says such things to me. 
Algernon.
Then Miss Prism is a short-sighted old lady. [
Cecily
puts the rose 
in his buttonhole.] You are the prettiest girl I ever saw. 
Cecily.
Miss Prism says that all good looks are a snare. 
Algernon.
They are a snare that every sensible man would like to be caught 
in. 
Cecily.
Oh, I don’t think I would care to catch a sensible man. I shouldn’t 
know what to talk to him about. 
[They pass into the house.
Miss Prism
and 
Dr. Chasuble
return.] 
Miss Prism.
You are too much alone, dear Dr. Chasuble. You should get 
married. A misanthrope I can understand—a womanthrope, never! 
Chasuble.
[With a scholar’s shudder.] Believe me, I do not deserve so 
neologistic a phrase. The precept as well as the practice of the Primitive 
Church was distinctly against matrimony. 
Miss Prism.
[Sententiously.] That is obviously the reason why the Primitive 
Church has not lasted up to the present day. And you do not seem to 
realise, dear Doctor, that by persistently remaining single, a man converts 
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himself into a permanent public temptation. Men should be more careful; 
this very celibacy leads weaker vessels astray. 
Chasuble.
But is a man not equally attractive when married?