65.

MEG
Oh, John, my dear, kind, hard-
working boy. I didn't mean it! It
was so wicked, so untrue and
ungrateful, how could I say it!
JOHN
(sadly)
Perhaps you meant it.
MEG
No! Not a bit! We’ll figure out a
way to get you your coat as well,
and then won’t we be grand, the two
of us?

JOHN
(pats her hand, rises)
I can’t afford it, my dear.
MEG
John, but --
JOHN
I need to go to bed.
John gets up from the table.

JOHN (CONT'D)
(pausing, but not turning
around)
And I really am very sorry that you
have had to do without so many
beautiful things. And that you’re
married to someone who can’t give
them to you.

He leaves, and she is terrified that she’s broken the man she
loves so much.
INT. PARIS. ARTIST’S STUDIO. DAY. 1869.
Amy is looking through her own paintings and sketches and has
a disturbed expression on her face. Laurie enters. His lot in
life is always to be apologizing to one March sister or
another, and he looks truly contrite.
LAURIE
Hello Amy!
AMY
(not turning around)
I don’t want to see you.
 66.

LAURIE
Oh, Amy I’m so sorry for how I
behaved. Please? Forgive me?
AMY LAURIE
(still not turning) /Only a little, and it’s 4pm,
Have you been drinking you can’t be too hard on me.
/again?
AMY
Someone has to do it.
LAURIE
So when do you begin your great
work of art, Raphaella?

AMY
(finally turning)
Never.
He sees her face, the ashen worry traced on it.
LAURIE
What - why?
AMY
(grim)
I’m a failure. Jo is in New York,
being a writer, and I am a failure.
LAURIE
That’s quite a statement to make at
twenty.
AMY
Rome took all the vanity out of me.
And Paris made me realize I’d never
be a genius. I’m giving up all my
foolish artistic hopes.
LAURIE
Why should you? You have so much
talent and energy.
AMY
Talent isn’t genius, and no amount
of energy can make it so. I want to
be great, or nothing. I won’t be a
common-place dauber, so I don’t
intend to try anymore.
Laurie watches her and then says conspiratorially:
 67.

LAURIE
What women are allowed into the
club of geniuses anyway?
AMY
The Brontes?
LAURIE
That’s it?
AMY
I think so.
LAURIE
And who always declares genius?

AMY
Well, men, I suppose.
LAURIE
They’re cutting down the
competition.
AMY
That’s a very complicated argument
to make me feel better.
LAURIE
Do you though? Feel better?
AMY
I do think that male or female, I’m
a middling talent.
LAURIE
Middling talent? Then may I ask
your last portrait be of me?
Amy laughs.
AMY
All right.
LAURIE
Now that you’ve given up all your
foolish artistic hopes, what are
you going to do with your life?
AMY
Polish up my other talents and be
an ornament to society.
 68.

LAURIE
Here is where Fred Vaughn comes in,
I suppose.
AMY LAURIE
Don’t make /fun! (laughing)
/I’m not!
LAURIE
You are not engaged, I hope?
AMY
No...
LAURIE
But you will be, if he goes down
properly on one knee?
AMY
Most likely, yes.
AMY
He’s rich, richer than you, even.

LAURIE
I understand queens of society
can’t get on without money. But it
does sound odd coming from one of
your mother’s girls.
AMY
I’ve always known that I would
marry rich. Why should I be ashamed
of that?
LAURIE
There is nothing to be ashamed of,
as long as you love him.
AMY
Well, I believe we have some power
over who we love, it isn’t
something that just happens to a
person.
LAURIE
I think the poets might disagree.
AMY
Well. I’m not a poet, I’m just a
woman. And as a woman I have no way
to make money, not enough to earn a
living and support my family.
 69.
AMY (CONT'D)
Even if I had my own money, which I
don’t, it would belong to my
husband the minute we were married.
If we had children they would
belong to him not me. They would be
his property. So don’t sit there
and tell me that marriage isn’t an
economic proposition, because it
is. It may not be for you but it
most certainly is for me.
The sound of a carriage approaching, and Amy gives a little
start:
AMY
That will be Fred now.
(to Laurie)
How do I look? Do I look all right?
Laurie looks at her, really looks at her for the first time.
LAURIE
You look beautiful. You are...
beautiful.
She suddenly blushes, but smiles in thanks. And then runs off
to greet Fred. From the top of the staircase, Laurie looks at
her and Fred embrace, not sure of what he’s feeling.

THE PAST. EXT. BEACH. DAY. 1862.

On a perfect spring day, Laurie, playing the host, makes the
introductions of the British family to the March women. And
he introduces Fred Vaughn, who, of course, we already know as
Amy’s potential husband.
LAURIE
This is Fred Vaughn,
(a handsome young man)
and his sister Kate,
(a prim looking girl)
and of course you know Mr. Brooke -
and this is Meg, Amy, Beth and Jo.
Jo tips her oversized hat.
FRED
(British accent)
So pleased to meet you.
AMY
Oh, how elegant.