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EMILY
Me! Look at Laura! She used to want to be a soldier, or a nurse in a military hospital; but now, this wild fashionable life here has blown all that sort of ambition to the winds; and yet, I don't believe she's happy for all her splendid notoriety and being glorified and worshipped by everybody.
LAFAYETTE
Well, are you happy?
EMILY
No, I ain't , and that's a fact.
(Rises.)
But, O my, I was when I was a simple, simpering idiot in Missouri.
(Enter LAURA.)
LAFAYETTE
Ah, Laura dear, we've been talking about you and how in six months you've become the Belle of Washington.
LAURA
You were always too enthusiastic about me, my Dear Brother.
LAFAYETTE
It's not I, Sister, and it's not us , it is everybody. You have in your train of a dozen Senators, a score or so of Congressmen, two or three Cabinet Officers, and—
LAURA
That will do, Lafayette. There's but one President. If the Tennessee land bill passes—
LAFAYETTE
He'll sign it Laura! You carry the magician's wand. Everybody yields to you.
LAURA
(Passionately.)I live on excitement. For five night I've not slept, and [yet] I'm not fatigued.
LAFAYETTE
But you must rest Laura, or you'll be ill.
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