COX. And Cox-- BOTH. Are satisfied! THE CURTAIN FALLS. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED. _A Comedietta, in One Act._ DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. COLONEL CHALLENGER. HARRY BARTON. BASIL ROYSTON. MRS. TEMPLETON. JULIA TEMPLETON. } } (her nieces.) JOSEPHINE TEMPLETON. } SCENE.--Mrs. Templeton's Villa at Roehampton. _Handsomely furnished apartments; large French window at C. looking on a garden. Doors R. H. and L. H. At R. H. a table, on which is an open album; at L. C. another table covered with papers, etc.; table, sofa, chairs, etc._ _Enter MRS. TEMPLETON at C., followed by COLONEL CHALLENGER._ COL. Cousin Martha, you are wrong, wrong, wrong! a thousand times wrong! MRS. T. Cousin Samuel, I'm right, right, right! _ten_ thousand times right! COL. (_aside_). Obstinate old woman! MRS. T. (_aside_). Pig-headed old man! COL. What possible reason can you have for setting your face against Josephine's getting married? It's downright tyranny! Call yourself an aunt, indeed! MRS. T. My reason is a very simple one. Her elder sister, Julia, must find a husband first. COL. First come, first served--eh? Really, my dear Martha, I must say that, for a sensible woman, you are by many degrees the most prejudiced, the most self-willed, the most-- MRS. T. Of course I am! But you know very well that when I once _do_ make up my mind to anything-- COL. You stick to it like a fly to a "catch-'em-alive-oh." MRS. T. I don't choose that Julia should suffer what _I_ did! _I_ had a sister, Dorothy Jane, four years my junior, who married before I did--do you think that was pleasant?--who supplied me with a sprinkling of nephews and nieces before _I_ had a husband--do you think that was pleasant?--who gave garden-parties, balls, concerts, to which all the world flocked, and surrounded her with flattery, adulation, while _I_ was neglected, extinguished, regularly snuffed out. Do you think _that_ was pleasant? Well, it is _this_ humiliation that I am determined to spare Julia. COL. Well, you didn't lose much by waiting. I'm sure Tom Templeton was as good a creature as ever breathed--didn't live long, poor fellow, but cut up remarkably well considering. MRS. T. Leaving his two nieces, his brother's children, to my charge, with ten thousand pounds each. COL. As a wedding portion, which, I must say, you didn't seem in a hurry to part with. MRS. T. You know my conditions. You have only to find a husband for Julia. COL. I? When she refused half the good-looking fellows within ten miles round! If she _does_ mean to marry, she takes her time about it, that I will say; it never seems to occur to her that she's keeping her poor sister out in the cold! MRS. T. You may be mistaken, cousin. I spoke to Julia only yesterday, and she expressed herself in terms which convinced me that, were she to receive a suitable offer--