[Just now Jean is seen slowly returning from the garden without Rex. Her pretty head is bent and, busy with her own sad thoughts, she is startled by the following:
Ernest
There are laws to prevent marriage in some cases but none to enforce marriage on women—unless they will it.
John
[beside himself with rage]
Enforce! Do you think I'll ever allow a sister of mine to marry a libertine?
Jean
[thinks they are discussing her, and is outraged]
But I'm not going to marry him! My engagement is broken.
[General consternation. Sobbing, Jean runs into house.