Cecily has recorded her engagement to Jack’s (imaginary) brother Ernest in her diary
She tells Algernon (who is pretending to be Ernest) that they have been engaged for three months, even though they have never met. She explains:
"It had always been a girlish dream of mine to love someone whose name was Ernest. There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence."
She also reveals that she has written herself love letters from Ernest and even broken off the engagement once—just for the drama of it.
This whimsical and self-created romance satirizes the overly sentimental and idealized notions of love in Victorian society.
