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LAURA
(Her head still bowed.)

Oh, Clay, it is hard. What do you ask of me?

CLAY

Only what I asked in my letter. Who is Colonel Selby?

LAURA

He [was ] and officer in the confederate service.

CLAY

[But] what is he to [you ]?

LAURA

A friend.

CLAY

Nothing more?

LAURA

Oh, Clay, why do you ask these questions?.

CLAY

I will tell you Laura, these questions have been asked of me.

LAURA
(Rising.)

Fools! Why do people trouble themselves about me?

CLAY

Because you live in the world and are a part of it. [Now will you answer? Not the people, but me?

LAURA

Oh, Clay, spare me! Trust me?

CLAY

I would spare you if I could. I have trusted you.

(Pause.)

You have not answered.

LAURA

I cannot.

CLAY

Then I shall ask the only other person in the world who can answer.

(Starts to go.)

LAURA

Clay! Clay! There is a limit beyond even which you must not go.

CLAY

That limit I have not yet reached!

LAURA

Clay—

CLAY

Laura, you and I were thrown by some strange chance into the bosom of an honest and generous family. There may be wiser men than he whom we call father, but there are none kinder, none truer, none more devouted. We bear his name by his good courtesy, and it behoves us to bear it worthily.

LAURA

Clay, you forget! You insult me!