JOSEPHINE (laughing again). Ha! ha! ha! You don’t mean to say you’ve all been taken in? Did you think we were in earnest all the time? Ha! ha! ha! (Aside to COLONEL.) Laugh!
COL. Ha! ha! ha!
ROYS. (very loud). Ha! ha! ha!
MRS. T. (impatiently). Josephine, I insist on your explaining this extraordinary behavior instantly!
JOSEPHINE. Nothing so simple. (To COLONEL and BARTON.) There’s no necessity for our carrying on this innocent little jest any longer, is there?
MRS. T. Jest?
JOSEPHINE. Yes; this harmless conspiracy to make everybody happy! Julia dear, it was to test your love for me that I pretended to be so very anxious to get married, which I wasn’t the least little bit in the world (with a sly look at ROYSTON). I mean I wasn’t then! My fellow-conspirator, Mr. Barton, fearing that your rejection of him might proceed from a preference for another, joined in the plot, but very unwillingly, for it is you, Julia, you alone, that he has ever loved; you alone that he loves still!
MRS. T. What is it I hear?
BART. The truth, madam! (To JULIA.) May I hope, or must I endure a second refusal!
JULIA (tenderly). I suffered too much from the first, Harry (giving her hand to BARTON).