Sir J. That I'm free!
Mollen. Yes! But at what cost!
Sir J. Cost! What do you mean?
Mollen. The situation of which you complained this afternoon will remain, will it not? And intensified—a million times. Nay, it will have become—impossible!
Sir J. All this is beyond me! he turns appealingly to Lady Claude! Lady Claude!
Lady C. It is beyond me too, Sir Joseph—but papa knows—he is infallible!
Mollen. The girl has confessed her love for you. A love, mark you, that does not exist, but that my explanation will call into being!
Sir J. (pettishly) Absurd!
Mollen. But it's true! Her feeling for you, at present a mere wayward infatuation, will at once swell into romantic passion. She'll begin to wither—