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LAURA

I'll ask him not to come any more, but it's very lonely here, and he's the only real gentleman in Hawkeye.

MRS. HAWKINS

If he is a real Gentleman, Laura, he won't be offended. Gentlemen know that poor girls must protect their good name. It'll be so much better for us all, if he don't come any more. I want to thank you again my darling.

(Approaches and kisses LAURA.)

And now I'll go see if your Father's done anything.

(Exit.)

EMILY
(Putting her arms around LAURA.)

Do you care so much Laura?

LAURA

Care? Who is there here, [who] can compare with Colonel Selby?

EMILY

No one, perhaps; but Mama is right, he does not belong to our world.

LAURA

Then Emily, we must fit ourselves for his. The life we are leading now is mere vegetation, we don't live , we only exist.

(LAURA sits.)

EMILY

Why, Laura! What a girl you are! You're ambitious as— Now Laura, what can Colonel Selby do for you more than any other might?

LAURA

Girl! I am a woman now! My love for Colonel Selby has made a woman of me, child! What can he do for me? He can take me out into that great mysterious world I dream of—where there is action ! Action ! I want to do something. I want to be something. I won't be a silly, trashy, village inanity, to simper my useless life out and then pass away like the weeds—only enriching the earth by becoming a part of it.