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EMILY
[(Sitting on footstool by LAURA.)

I'm ambitious too, a bit.

LAURA

But it's not] gunpowder and brimstone [ambition, is it little sister?]

EMILY

Yes. I don't want any pow-wow and all that sort of thing. Now I'd like to have a nice, quiet, good natured husband, who'd love me, and pet me, and give me nice clothes—not gaudy you know, but nice , and heaps of them. O, I'd like to have a nice new dress every four or five months!

LAURA

It's a nice, domestic, pretty little ambition, Child, and the Husband who'd mar it would be a wretch.

EMILY

Oh! no, he wouldn't be that , Laura, not so bad as that. But still if he could dress me like that, and give me a gold ring. O a real gold ring, Laura!

LAURA

Then you'd be the happiest little creature in the whole world—

EMILY

And then if we could have ever so many nice good books to read, and a preacher that was a good preacher, and if we could have pie every day.

LAURA

Bless [me]! What a paradise! If ever I get rich, you shall have it too—ring, pies and all.

(Kisses her.)

EMILY

Now Laura, tell me your ambition.