The next portion of The Importance of Being Earnest that I read ventures to Jack's country house, where Cecily and Miss Prism are speaking. Miss Prism is trying to get Cecily to take a German lesson, but Cecily resists. The opening of this act (Act II) exposes the nature of Cecily and Miss Prism through dialogue. In this conversation, Cecily is shown to be a young girl with a free spirit, while Miss Prism seems to be inclined to back up Jack's sentiments--to have Cecily "improve in all areas". Jack is Cecily's uncle, and is presumably the primary caretaker of Cecily.
A Mr. Ernest Worthing drops in, Jack's alter ego created for "Bunburying". However, we discover that this is Algernon, coming to both mock Jack for his lies and profess his interest in Cecily. Cecily has heard innumerable things about Ernest, mostly that he is a troublemaker who "lives only for pleasure". Despite hearing this (and having never met him), she is drawn to him and expresses excitement at his arrival.
Jack returns to the country house, dressed in clothes of mourning. Attempting to kill off Ernest entirely, he tells those in the house that Ernest is dead, but "Ernest" enters the room soon after to Jack's disgust.
I left it with "Ernest" forcing his stay at Jack's to last a week and expressing his love for Cecily. Despite the bizarreness of an uncle and niece being together (Cecily is still under the impression that "Ernest" is Jack's brother), Cecily reciprocates these feelings, accepting his proposal soon after. However, to bolster the hilarity and irony of the situation, Cecily says that she has always wanted to marry an Ernest and cannot see herself with a person with another name. The "Bunburying" that got Jack into a situation has now gotten Algernon into a similar bind.
