[Part 3] "Gone With The Wind" by Margaret Mitchell

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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐕.

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THAT NIGHT AT SUPPER, Scarlett went through the motions of presiding over the table in her mother’s absence, but her mind was in a ferment over the dreadful news she had heard about Ashley and Melanie.

Desperately she longed for her mother’s return from the Slatterys’, for, without her, she felt lost and alone.

What right had the Slatterys and their everlasting sickness to take Ellen away from home just at this time when she, Scarlett, needed her so much?

Throughout the dismal meal, Gerald’s booming voice battered against her ears until she thought she could endure it no longer.

He had forgotten completely about his conversation with her that afternoon and was carrying on a monologue about the latest news from Fort Sumter, which he punctuated by hammering his fist on the table and waving his arms in the air.

Gerald made a habit of dominating the conversation at mealtimes, and usually, Scarlett, occupied with her own thoughts, scarcely heard him; but tonight she could not shut out his voice, no matter how much she strained to listen for the sound of carriage wheels that would herald Ellen’s return.

Of course, she did not intend to tell her mother what was so heavy on her heart, for Ellen would be shocked and grieved to know that a daughter of hers wanted a man who was engaged to another girl.

But, in the depths of the first tragedy she had ever known, she wanted the very comfort of her mother’s presence.

She always felt secure when Ellen was by her, for there was nothing so bad that Ellen could not better it, simply by being there.

She rose suddenly from her chair at the sound of creaking wheels in the driveway and then sank down again as they went on around the house to the back yard.

It could not be Ellen, for she would alight at the front steps.

Then there was an excited babble of negro voices in the darkness of the yard and high-pitched negro laughter.

Looking out the window, Scarlett saw Pork, who had left the room a moment before, holding high a flaring pine knot, while indistinguishable figures descended from a wagon.

The laughter and talking rose and fell in the dark night air, pleasant, homely, carefree sounds, gutturally soft, musically shrill.

Then feet shuffled up the back-porch stairs and into the passageway leading to the main house, stopping in the hall just outside the dining room.

There was a brief interval of whispering, and Pork entered, his usual dignity gone, his eyes rolling and his white teeth a-gleam.

“Mist’ Gerald,” he announced, breathing hard, the pride of a bridegroom all over his shining face, “yo’ new ’oman done come.”

“New woman?

I didn’t buy any new woman,” declared Gerald, pretending to glare.

“Yassah, you did, Mist’ Gerald!

Yassah!

An’ she out hyah now wantin’ ter speak wid you,” answered Pork, giggling and twisting his hands in excitement.

“Well, bring in the bride,” said Gerald, and Pork, turning, beckoned into the hall to his wife, newly arrived from the Wilkes plantation to become a part of the household of Tara.

She entered, and behind her, almost hidden by her voluminous calico skirts, came her twelve-year-old daughter, squirming against her mother’s legs.

Dilcey was tall and bore herself erectly.

She might have been any age from thirty to sixty, so unlined was her immobile bronze face.

Indian blood was plain in her features, overbalancing the negroid characteristics.

The red color of her skin, narrow high forehead, prominent cheek bones and the hawk-bridged nose which flattened at the end above thick negro lips, all showed the mixture of two races.

She was self-possessed and walked with a dignity that surpassed even Mammy’s, for Mammy had acquired her dignity and Dilcey’s was in her blood.

When she spoke, her voice was not so slurred as most negroes’ and she chose her words more carefully.

“Good evenin’, young Misses.

Mist’ Gerald, I is sorry to ’sturb you, but I wanted to come here and thank you agin fo’ buyin’ me and my chile.

Lots of gentlemens might a’ bought me but they wouldn’t a’ bought my Prissy, too, jes’ to keep me frum grivin’ and I thanks you.

I’m gwine do my bes’ fo’ you and show you I ain’t forgettin’.”

“Hum—hurrump,” said Gerald, clearing his throat in embarrassment at being caught openly in an act of kindness.

Dilcey turned to Scarlett and something like a smile wrinkled the corners of her eyes.

“Miss Scarlett, Poke done tole me how you ast Mist’ Gerald to buy me.

And so I’m gwine give you my Prissy fo’ yo’ own maid.”

She reached behind her and jerked the little girl forward.

She was a brown little creature, with skinny legs like a bird and a myriad of pigtails carefully wrapped with twine sticking stiffly out from her head.

She had sharp, knowing eyes that missed nothing and a studiedly stupid look on her face.

“Thank you, Dilcey,” Scarlett replied, “but I’m afraid Mammy will have something to say about that.

She’s been my maid ever since I was born.”

“Mammy gettin’ ole,” said Dilcey, with a calmness that would have enraged Mammy.

“She a good mammy, but you a young lady now and needs a good maid, and my Prissy been maidin’ fo’ Miss India fo’ a year now.

She kin sew and fix hair good as a grown pusson.”

Prodded by her mother, Prissy bobbed a sudden curtsy and grinned at Scarlett, who could not help grinning back.

“A sharp little wench,” she thought, and said aloud: “Thank you, Dilcey, we’ll see about it when Mother comes home.”

“Thank’ee, Ma’m.

I gives you good night,” said Dilcey and, turning, left the room with her child, Pork dancing attendance.

The supper things cleared away, Gerald resumed his oration, but with little satisfaction to himself and none at all to his audience.

His thunderous predictions of immediate war and his rhetorical questions as to whether the South would stand for further insults from the Yankees only produced faintly bored, “Yes, Papas” and “No, Pas.”

Carreen, sitting on a hassock under the big lamp, was deep in the romance of a girl who had taken the veil after her lover’s death and, with silent tears of enjoyment oozing from her eyes, was pleasurably picturing herself in a white coif.

Suellen, embroidering on what she gigglingly called her “hope chest,” was wondering if she could possibly detach Stuart Tarleton from her sister’s side at the barbecue tomorrow and fascinate him with the sweet womanly qualities which she possessed and Scarlett did not.

And Scarlett was in a tumult about Ashley.

How could Pa talk on and on about Fort Sumter and the Yankees when he knew her heart was breaking?

As usual in the very young, she marveled that people could be so selfishly oblivious to her pain and the world rock along just the same, in spite of her heartbreak.

Her mind was as if a cyclone had gone through it, and it seemed strange that the dining room where they sat should be so placid, so unchanged from what it had always been.

The heavy mahogany table and sideboards, the massive silver, the bright rag rugs on the shining floor were all in their accustomed places, just as if nothing had happened.

It was a friendly and comfortable room and, ordinarily, Scarlett loved the quiet hours which the family spent there after supper; but tonight she hated the sight of it and, if she had not feared her father’s loudly bawled questions, she would have slipped away, down the dark hall to Ellen’s little office and cried out her sorrow on the old sofa.

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That was the room that Scarlett liked best in all the house.

There, Ellen sat before her tall secretary each morning, keeping the accounts of the plantation and listening to the reports of Jonas Wilkerson, the overseer.

There also the family idled while Ellen’s quill scratched across her ledgers, Gerald in the old rocker, the girls on the sagging cushions of the sofa that was too battered and worn for the front of the house.

Scarlett longed to be there now, alone with Ellen, so she could put her head in her mother’s lap and cry in peace.

Wouldn’t Mother ever come home?

Then, wheels ground sharply on the graveled driveway, and the soft murmur of Ellen’s voice dismissing the coachman floated into the room.

The whole group looked up eagerly as she entered rapidly, her hoops swaying, her face tired and sad.

There entered with her the faint fragrance of lemon verbena sachet, which seemed always to creep from the folds of her dresses, a fragrance that was always linked in Scarlett’s mind with her mother.

Mammy followed at a few paces, the leather bag in her hand, her underlip pushed out and her brow lowering.

Mammy muttered darkly to herself as she waddled, taking care that her remarks were pitched too low to be understood but loud enough to register her unqualified disapproval.

“I am sorry I am so late,” said Ellen, slipping her plaid shawl from drooping shoulders and handing it to Scarlett, whose cheek she patted in passing.

Gerald’s face had brightened as if by magic at her entrance.

“Is the brat baptized?” he questioned.

“Yes, and dead, poor thing,” said Ellen.

“I feared Emmie would die, too, but I think she will live.”

The girls’ faces turned to her, startled and questioning, and Gerald wagged his head philosophically.

“Well, ’tis better so that the brat is dead, no doubt, poor fatherle—”

“It is late.

We had better have prayers now,” interrupted Ellen so smoothly that, if Scarlett had not known her mother well, the interruption would have passed unnoticed.

It would be interesting to know who was the father of Emmie Slattery’s baby, but Scarlett knew she would never learn the truth of the matter if she waited to hear it from her mother.

Scarlett suspected Jonas Wilkerson, for she had frequently seen him walking down the road with Emmie at nightfall.

Jonas was a Yankee and a bachelor, and the fact that he was an overseer forever barred him from any contact with the County social life.

There was no family of any standing into which he could marry, no people with whom he could associate except the Slatterys and riffraff like them.

As he was several cuts above the Slatterys in education, it was only natural that he should not want to marry Emmie, no matter how often he might walk with her in the twilight.

Scarlett sighed, for her curiosity was sharp.

Things were always happening under her mother’s eyes which she noticed no more than if they had not happened at all.

Ellen ignored all things contrary to her ideas of propriety and tried to teach Scarlett to do the same, but with poor success.

Ellen had stepped to the mantel to take her rosary beads from the small inlaid casket in which they always reposed when Mammy spoke up with firmness.

“Miss Ellen, you gwine eat some supper befo’ you does any prayin’.”

“Thank you, Mammy, but I am not hungry.”

“Ah gwine fix yo’ supper mahseff an’ you eats it,” said Mammy, her brow furrowed with indignation as she started down the hall for the kitchen.

“Poke!” she called, “tell Cookie stir up de fiah.

Miss Ellen home.”

As the boards shuddered under her weight, the soliloquy she had been muttering in the front hall grew louder and louder, coming clearly to the ears of the family in the dining room.

“Ah has said time an’ again, it doan do no good doin’ nuthin’ fer w’ite trash.

Dey is de shiflesses, mos’ ungrateful passel of no-counts livin’.

An’ Miss Ellen got no bizness weahin’ herseff out waitin’ on folks dat did dey be wuth shootin’ dey’d have niggers ter wait on dem.

An’ Ah has said—”

Her voice trailed off as she went down the long open passageway, covered only by a roof, that led into the kitchen.

Mammy had her own method of letting her owners know exactly where she stood on all matters.

She knew it was beneath the dignity of quality white folks to pay the slightest attention to what a darky said when she was just grumbling to herself.

She knew that to uphold this dignity, they must ignore what she said, even if she stood in the next room and almost shouted.

It protected her from reproof, and it left no doubt in anyone’s mind as to her exact views on any subject.

Pork entered the room, bearing a plate, silver and a napkin.

He was followed closely by Jack, a black little boy of ten, hastily buttoning a white linen jacket with one hand and bearing in the other a fly-swisher, made of thin strips of newspaper tied to a reed longer than he was.

Ellen had a beautiful peacock-feather fly-brusher, but it was used only on very special occasions and then only after domestic struggle, due to the obstinate conviction of Pork, Cookie and Mammy that peacock feathers were bad luck.

Ellen sat down in the chair which Gerald pulled out for her and four voices attacked her.

“Mother, the lace is loose on my new ball dress and I want to wear it tomorrow night at Twelve Oaks.

Won’t you please fix it?”

“Mother, Scarlett’s new dress is prettier than mine and I look like a fright in pink.

Why can’t she wear my pink and let me wear her green?

She looks all right in pink.”

“Mother, can I stay up for the ball tomorrow night?

I’m thirteen now—”

“Mrs. O’Hara, would you believe it—Hush, you girls, before I take me crop to you!

Cade Calvert was in Atlanta this morning and he says—will you be quiet and let me be hearing me own voice?—and he says it’s all upset they are there and talking nothing but war, militia drilling, troops forming.

And he says the news from Charleston is that they will be putting up with no more Yankee insults.”

Ellen’s tired mouth smiled into the tumult as she addressed herself first to her husband, as a wife should.

“If the nice people of Charleston feel that way, I’m sure we will all feel the same way soon,” she said, for she had a deeply rooted belief that, excepting only Savannah, most of the gentle blood of the whole continent could be found in that small seaport city, a belief shared largely by Charlestonians.

“No, Carreen, next year, dear.

Then you can stay up for balls and wear grown-up dresses, and what a good time my little pink cheeks will have!

Don’t pout, dear.

You can go to the barbecue, remember that, and stay up through supper, but no balls till you are fourteen.

“Give me your gown, Scarlett.

I will whip the lace for you after prayers.

“Suellen, I do not like your tone, dear.

Your pink gown is lovely and suitable to your complexion, as Scarlett’s is to hers.

But you may wear my garnet necklace tomorrow night.”

Suellen, behind her mother’s back, wrinkled her nose triumphantly at Scarlett, who had been planning to beg the necklace for herself.

Scarlett put out her tongue at her.

Suellen was an annoying sister with her whining and selfishness, and had it not been for Ellen’s restraining hand, Scarlett would frequently have boxed her ears.

“Now, Mr. O’Hara, tell me more about what Mr. Calvert said about Charleston,” said Ellen.

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Scarlett knew her mother cared nothing at all about war and politics and thought them masculine matters about which no lady could intelligently concern herself.

But it gave Gerald pleasure to air his views, and Ellen was unfailingly thoughtful of her husband’s pleasure.

While Gerald launched forth on his news, Mammy set the plates before her mistress, golden-topped biscuits, breast of fried chicken and a yellow yam open and steaming, with melted butter dripping from it.

Mammy pinched small Jack, and he hastened to his business of slowly swishing the paper ribbons back and forth behind Ellen.

Mammy stood beside the table, watching every forkful that traveled from plate to mouth, as though she intended to force the food down Ellen’s throat should she see signs of flagging.

Ellen ate diligently, but Scarlett could see that she was too tired to know what she was eating.

Only Mammy’s implacable face forced her to it.

When the dish was empty and Gerald only midway in his remarks on the thievishness of Yankees who wanted to free darkies and yet offered no penny to pay for their freedom, Ellen rose.

“We’ll be having prayers?” he questioned, reluctantly.

“Yes.

It is so late—why, it is actually ten o’clock,” as the clock with coughing and tinny thumps marked the hour.

“Carreen should have been asleep long ago.

The lamp, please, Pork, and my prayer book, Mammy.”

Prompted by Mammy’s hoarse whisper, Jack set his fly-brush in the corner and removed the dishes, while Mammy fumbled in the sideboard drawer for Ellen’s worn prayer book.

Pork, tiptoeing, reached the ring in the chain and drew the lamp slowly down until the table top was brightly bathed in light and the ceiling receded into shadows.

Ellen arranged her skirts and sank to the floor on her knees, laying the open prayer book on the table before her and clasping her hands upon it.

Gerald knelt beside her, and Scarlett and Suellen took their accustomed places on the opposite side of the table, folding their voluminous petticoats in pads under their knees, so they would ache less from contact with the hard floor.

Carreen, who was small for her age, could not kneel comfortably at the table and so knelt facing a chair, her elbows on the seat.

She liked this position, for she seldom failed to go to sleep during prayers and, in this posture, it escaped her mother’s notice.

The house servants shuffled and rustled in the hall to kneel by the doorway, Mammy groaning aloud as she sank down, Pork straight as a ramrod, Rosa and Teena, the maids, graceful in their spreading bright calicoes, Cookie gaunt and yellow beneath her snowy head rag, and Jack, stupid with sleep, as far away from Mammy’s pinching fingers as possible.

Their dark eyes gleamed expectantly, for praying with their white folks was one of the events of the day.

The old and colorful phrases of the litany with its Oriental imagery meant little to them but it satisfied something in their hearts, and they always swayed when they chanted the responses: “Lord, have mercy on us,” “Christ, have mercy on us.”

Ellen closed her eyes and began praying, her voice rising and falling, lulling and soothing.

Heads bowed in the circle of yellow light as Ellen thanked God for the health and happiness of her home, her family and her negroes.

When she had finished her prayers for those beneath the roof of Tara, her father, mother, sisters, three dead babies and “all the poor souls in Purgatory,” she clasped her white beads between long fingers and began the Rosary.

Like the rushing of a soft wind, the responses from black throats and white throats rolled back:

“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death.”

Despite her heartache and the pain of unshed tears, a deep sense of quiet and peace fell upon Scarlett as it always did at this hour.

Some of the disappointment of the day and dread of the morrow departed from her, leaving a feeling of hope.

It was not the lifting up of her heart to God that brought this balm, for religion went no more than lip deep with her.

It was the sight of her mother’s serene face upturned to the throne of God and His saints and angels, praying for blessings on those whom she loved.

When Ellen intervened with Heaven, Scarlett felt certain that Heaven heard.

Ellen finished and Gerald, who could never find his beads at prayer time, began furtively counting his decade on his fingers.

As his voice droned on, Scarlett’s thoughts strayed, in spite of herself.

She knew she should be examining her conscience.

Ellen had taught her that at the end of each day it was her duty to examine her conscience thoroughly, to admit her numerous faults and pray to God for forgiveness and strength never to repeat them.

But Scarlett was examining her heart.

She dropped her head upon her folded hands so that her mother could not see her face, and her thoughts went sadly back to Ashley.

How could he be planning to marry Melanie when he really loved her, Scarlett?

And when he knew how much she loved him?

How could he deliberately break her heart?

Then, suddenly, an idea, shining and new, flashed like a comet through her brain.

“Why, Ashley hasn’t an idea that I’m in love with him!”

She almost gasped aloud in the shock of its unexpectedness.

Her mind stood still as if paralyzed for a long, breathless instant, and then raced forward.

“How could he know?

I’ve always acted so prissy and ladylike and touchme-not around him he probably thinks I don’t care a thing about him except as a friend.

Yes, that’s why he’s never spoken!

He thinks his love is hopeless.

And that’s why he’s looked so—”

Her mind went swiftly back to those times when she had caught him looking at her in that strange manner, when the gray eyes that were such perfect curtains for his thoughts had been wide and naked and had in them a look of torment and despair.

“He’s been broken hearted because he thinks I’m in love with Brent or Stuart or Cade.

And probably he thinks that if he can’t have me, he might as well please his family and marry Melanie.

But if he knew I did love him—”

Her volatile spirits shot up from deepest depression to excited happiness.

This was the answer to Ashley’s reticence, to his strange conduct.

He didn’t know!

Her vanity leaped to the aid of her desire to believe, making belief a certainty.

If he knew she loved him, he would hasten to her side.

She had only to—

“Oh!” she thought rapturously, digging her fingers into her lowered brow.

“What a fool I’ve been not to think of this till now!

I must think of some way to let him know.

He wouldn’t marry her if he knew I loved him!

How could he?”

With a start, she realized that Gerald had finished and her mother’s eyes were on her.

Hastily she began her decade, telling off the beads automatically but with a depth of emotion in her voice that caused Mammy to open her eyes and shoot a searching glance at her.

As she finished her prayers and Suellen, then Carreen, began their decades, her mind was still speeding onward with her entrancing new thought.

Even now, it wasn’t too late!

Too often the County had been scandalized by elopements when one or the other of the participating parties was practically at the altar with a third.

And Ashley’s engagement had not even been announced yet!

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Yes, there was plenty of time!

If no love lay between Ashley and Melanie but only a promise given long ago, then why wasn’t it possible for him to break that promise and marry her?

Surely he would do it, if he knew that she, Scarlett, loved him.

She must find some way to let him know.

She would find some way!

And then—

Scarlett came abruptly out of her dream of delight, for she had neglected to make the responses and her mother was looking at her reprovingly.

As she resumed the ritual, she opened her eyes briefly and cast a quick glance around the room.

The kneeling figures, the soft glow of the lamp, the dim shadows where the negroes swayed, even the familiar objects that had been so hateful to her sight an hour ago, in an instant took on the color of her own emotions, and the room seemed once more a lovely place.

She would never forget this moment or this scene!

“Virgin most faithful,” her mother intoned.

The Litany of the Virgin was beginning, and obediently Scarlett responded: “Pray for us,” as Ellen praised in soft contralto the attributes of the Mother of God.

As always since childhood, this was, for Scarlett, a moment for adoration of Ellen, rather than the Virgin.

Sacrilegious though it might be, Scarlett always saw through her closed eyes, the upturned face of Ellen and not the Blessed Virgin, as the ancient phrases were repeated.

“Health of the Sick,” “Seat of Wisdom,” “Refuge of Sinners,” “Mystical Rose”—they were beautiful words because they were the attributes of Ellen.

But tonight, because of the exultation of her own spirit, Scarlett found in the whole ceremonial, the softly spoken words, the murmur of the responses, a surpassing beauty beyond any that she had ever experienced before.

And her heart went up to God in sincere thankfulness that a pathway for her feet had been opened—out of her misery and straight to the arms of Ashley.

When the last “Amen” sounded, they all rose, somewhat stiffly, Mammy being hauled to her feet by the combined efforts of Teena and Rosa.

Pork took a long spiller from the mantelpiece, lit it from the lamp flame and went into the hall.

Opposite the winding stair stood a walnut sideboard, too large for use in the dining room, bearing on its wide top several lamps and a long row of candles in candlesticks.

Pork lit one lamp and three candles and, with the pompous dignity of a first chamberlain of the royal bedchamber lighting a king and queen to their rooms, he led the procession up the stairs, holding the light high above his head.

Ellen, on Gerald’s arm, followed him, and the girls, each taking her own candlestick, mounted after them.

Scarlett entered her room, set the candle on the tall chest of drawers and fumbled in the dark closet for the dancing dress that needed stitching.

Throwing it across her arm, she crossed the hall quietly.

The door of her parents’ bedroom was slightly ajar and, before she could knock, Ellen’s voice, low but stern, came to her ears.

“Mr. O’Hara, you must dismiss Jonas Wilkerson.”

Gerald exploded, “And where will I be getting another overseer who wouldn’t be cheating me out of me eyeteeth?”

“He must be dismissed, immediately, tomorrow morning.

Big Sam is a good foreman and he can take over the duties until you can hire another overseer.”

“Ah, ha!” came Gerald’s voice.

“So, I understand!

Then the worthy Jonas sired the—”

“He must be dismissed.”

“So, he is the father of Emmie Slattery’s baby,” thought Scarlett.

“Oh, well.

What else can you expect from a Yankee man and a white-trash girl?”

Then, after a discreet pause which gave Gerald’s splutterings time to die away, she knocked on the door and handed the dress to her mother.

By the time Scarlett had undressed and blown out the candle, her plan for tomorrow had worked itself out in every detail.

It was a simple plan, for, with Gerald’s single-mindedness of purpose, her eyes were centered on the goal and she thought only of the most direct steps by which to reach it.

First, she would be “prideful,” as Gerald had commanded.

From the moment she arrived at Twelve Oaks, she would be her gayest, most spirited self.

No one would suspect that she had ever been downhearted because of Ashley and Melanie.

And she would flirt with every man there.

That would be cruel to Ashley, but it would make him yearn for her all the more.

She wouldn’t overlook a man of marriageable age, from ginger-whiskered old Frank Kennedy, who was Suellen’s beau, on down to shy, quiet, blushing Charles Hamilton, Melanie’s brother.

They would swarm around her like bees around a hive, and certainly Ashley would be drawn from Melanie to join the circle of her admirers.

Then somehow she would maneuver to get a few minutes alone with him, away from the crowd.

She hoped everything would work out that way, because it would be more difficult otherwise.

But if Ashley didn’t make the first move, she would simply have to do it herself.

When they were finally alone, he would have fresh in his mind the picture of the other men thronging about her, he would be newly impressed with the fact that every one of them wanted her, and that look of sadness and despair would be in his eyes.

Then she would make him happy again by letting him discover that, popular though she was, she preferred him above any other man in all the world.

And when she admitted it, modestly and sweetly, she would look a thousand things more.

Of course, she would do it all in a ladylike way.

She wouldn’t even dream of saying to him boldly that she loved him—that would never do.

But the manner of telling him was a detail that troubled her not at all.

She had managed such situations before and she could do it again.

Lying in the bed with the moonlight streaming dimly over her, she pictured the whole scene in her mind.

She saw the look of surprise and happiness that would come over his face when he realized that she really loved him, and she heard the words he would say asking her to be his wife.

Naturally, she would have to say then that she simply couldn’t think of marrying a man when he was engaged to another girl, but he would insist and finally she would let herself be persuaded.

Then they would decide to run off to Jonesboro that very afternoon and—

Why, by this time tomorrow night, she might be Mrs. Ashley Wilkes!

She sat up in bed, hugging her knees, and for a long happy moment she was Mrs. Ashley Wilkes—Ashley’s bride!

Then a slight chill entered her heart.

Suppose it didn’t work out this way?

Suppose Ashley didn’t beg her to run away with him?

Resolutely she pushed the thought from her mind.

“I won’t think of that now,” she said firmly.

“If I think of it now, it will upset me.

There’s no reason why things won’t come out the way I want them—if he loves me.

And I know he does!”

She raised her chin and her pale, black-fringed eyes sparkled in the moonlight.

Ellen had never told her that desire and attainment were two different matters; life had not taught her that the race was not to the swift.

She lay in the silvery shadows with courage rising and made the plans that a sixteen-year-old makes when life has been so pleasant that defeat is an impossibility and a pretty dress and a clear complexion are weapons to vanquish fate.

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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐕.

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IT WAS TEN O’CLOCK in the morning.

The day was warm for April and the golden sunlight streamed brilliantly into Scarlett’s room through the blue curtains of the wide windows.

The cream-colored walls glowed with light and the depth of the mahogany furniture gleamed deep red like wine, while the floor glistened as if it were glass, except where the rag rugs covered it and they were spots of gay color.

Already summer was in the air, the first hint of Georgia summer when the high tide of spring gives way reluctantly before a fiercer heat.

A balmy, soft warmth poured into the room, heavy with velvety smells, redolent of many blossoms, of newly fledged trees and of the moist, freshly turned red earth.

Through the window Scarlett could see the bright riot of the twin lines of daffodils bordering the graveled driveway and the golden masses of yellow jessamine spreading flowery sprangles modestly to the earth like crinolines.

The mockingbirds and the jays, engaged in their old feud for possession of the magnolia tree beneath her window, were bickering, the jays strident, acrimonious, the mockers sweet voiced and plaintive.

Such a glowing morning usually called Scarlett to the window, to lean arms on the broad sill and drink in the scents and sounds of Tara.

But, today she had no eye for sun or azure sky beyond a hasty thought, “Thank God, it isn’t raining.”

On the bed lay the apple-green, watered-silk ball dress with its festoons of ecru lace, neatly packed in a large cardboard box.

It was ready to be carried to Twelve Oaks to be donned before the dancing began, but Scarlett shrugged at the sight of it.

If her plans were successful, she would not wear that dress tonight.

Long before the ball began, she and Ashley would be on their way to Jonesboro to be married.

The troublesome question was—what dress should she wear to the barbecue?

What dress would best set off her charms and make her most irresistible to Ashley?

Since eight o’clock she had been trying on and rejecting dresses, and now she stood dejected and irritable in lace pantalets, linen corset cover and three billowing lace and linen petticoats.

Discarded garments lay about her on the floor, the bed, the chairs, in bright heaps of color and straying ribbons.

The rose organdie with long pink sash was becoming, but she had worn it last summer when Melanie visited Twelve Oaks and she’d be sure to remember it.

And might be catty enough to mention it.

The black bombazine, with its puffed sleeves and princess lace collar, set off her white skin superbly, but it did make her look a trifle elderly.

Scarlett peered anxiously in the mirror at her sixteen-year-old face as if expecting to see wrinkles and sagging chin muscles.

It would never do to appear sedate and elderly before Melanie’s sweet youthfulness.

The lavender barred muslin was beautiful with those wide insets of lace and net about the hem, but it had never suited her type.

It would suit Carreen’s delicate profile and wishy-washy expression perfectly, but Scarlett felt that it made her look like a schoolgirl.

It would never do to appear schoolgirlish beside Melanie’s poised self.

The green plaid taffeta, frothing with flounces and each flounce edged in green velvet ribbon, was most becoming, in fact her favorite dress, for it darkened her eyes to emerald.

But there was unmistakably a grease spot on the front of the basque.

Of course, her brooch could be pinned over the spot, but perhaps Melanie had sharp eyes.

There remained varicolored cotton dresses which Scarlett felt were not festive enough for the occasion, ball dresses and the green sprigged muslin she had worn yesterday.

But it was an afternoon dress.

It was not suitable for a barbecue, for it had only tiny puffed sleeves and the neck was low enough for a dancing dress.

But there was nothing else to do but wear it.

After all she was not ashamed of her neck and arms and bosom, even if it was not correct to show them in the morning.

As she stood before the mirror and twisted herself about to get a side view, she thought that there was absolutely nothing about her figure to cause her shame.

Her neck was short but rounded and her arms plump and enticing.

Her breasts, pushed high by her stays, were very nice breasts.

She had never had to sew tiny bows of silk ruffles in the lining of her basques, as most sixteen-year-old girls did, to give their figures the desired curves and fullness.

She was glad she had inherited Ellen’s slender white hands and tiny feet, and she wished she had Ellen’s height, too, but her own height pleased her very well.

What a pity legs could not be shown, she thought, pulling up her petticoats and regretfully viewing them, plump and neat under pantalets.

She had such nice legs.

Even the girls at the Fayetteville Academy had admitted as much.

And as for her waist—there was no one in Fayetteville, Jonesboro or in three counties, for that matter, who had so small a waist.

The thought of her waist brought her back to practical matters.

The green muslin measured seventeen inches about the waist, and Mammy had laced her for the eighteen-inch bombazine.

Mammy would have to lace her tighter.

She pushed open the door, listened and heard Mammy’s heavy tread in the downstairs hall.

She shouted for her impatiently, knowing she could raise her voice with impunity, as Ellen was in the smokehouse, measuring out the day’s food to Cookie.

“Some folks thinks as how Ah kin fly,” grumbled Mammy, shuffling up the stairs.

She entered puffing, with the expression of one who expects battle and welcomes it.

In her large black hands was a tray upon which food smoked, two large yams covered with butter, a pile of buckwheat cakes dripping syrup, and a large slice of ham swimming in gravy.

Catching sight of Mammy’s burden, Scarlett’s expression changed from one of minor irritation to obstinate belligerency.

In the excitement of trying on dresses she had forgotten Mammy’s ironclad rule that, before going to any party, the O’Hara girls must be crammed so full of food at home they would be unable to eat any refreshments at the party.

“It’s no use.

I won’t eat it.

You can just take it back to the kitchen.”

Mammy set the tray on the table and squared herself, hands on hips.

“Yas’m, you is!

Ah ain’ figgerin’ on havin’ happen whut happen at dat las’ barbecue w’en Ah wuz too sick frum dem chittlins Ah et ter fetch you no tray befo’ you went.

You is gwine eat eve’y bite of dis.”

“I am not!

Now, come here and lace me tighter because we are late already.

I heard the carriage come round to the front of the house.”

Mammy’s tone became wheedling.

“Now, Miss Scarlett, you be good an’ come eat jes’ a lil.

Miss Carreen an’ Miss Suellen done eat all dey’n.”

“They would,” said Scarlett contemptuously.

“They haven’t any more spirit than a rabbit.

But I won’t!

I’m through with trays.

I’m not forgetting the time I ate a whole tray and went to the Calverts’ and they had ice cream out of ice they’d brought all the way from Savannah, and I couldn’t eat but a spoonful.

I’m going to have a good time today and eat as much as I please.”

At this defiant heresy, Mammy’s brow lowered with indignation.

What a young miss could do and what she could not do were as different as black and white in Mammy’s mind; there was no middle ground of deportment between.

Suellen and Carreen were clay in her powerful hands and harkened respectfully to her warning.

But it had always been a struggle to teach Scarlett that most of her natural impulses were unladylike.

Mammy’s victories over Scarlett were hard-won and represented guile unknown to the white mind.

“Ef you doan care ’bout how folks talks ’bout dis fambly, Ah does,” she rumbled.

“Ah ain’ gwine stand by an’ have eve’ybody at de pahty sayin’ how you ain’ fotched up right.

Ah has tole you an’ tole you dat you kin allus tell a lady by dat she eat lak a bird.

An’ Ah ain’ aimin’ ter have you go ter Mist’ Wilkes’ an’ eat lak a fe’el han’ an’ gobble lak a hawg.”

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“Mother is a lady and she eats,” countered Scarlett.

“W’en you is mahied, you kin eat, too,” retorted Mammy.

“W’en Miss Ellen yo’ age, she never et nuthin’ w’en she went out, an’ needer yo’ Aunt Pauline nor yo’ Aunt Eulalie.

An’ dey all done mahied.

Young misses whut eats heavy mos’ gener’ly doan never ketch husbands.”

“I don’t believe it.

At that barbecue when you were sick and I didn’t eat beforehand, Ashley Wilkes told me he liked to see a girl with a healthy appetite.”

Mammy shook her head ominously.

“Whut gempmums says an’ what dey thinks is two diffunt things.

An’ Ah ain’ noticed Mist’ Ashley axing fer ter mahy you.”

Scarlett scowled, started to speak sharply and then caught herself.

Mammy had her there and there was no argument.

Seeing the obdurate look on Scarlett’s face, Mammy picked up the tray and, with the bland guile of her race, changed her tactics.

As she started for the door, she sighed.

“Well’m, awright.

Ah wuz tellin’ Cookie w’ile she wuz a-fixin’ dis tray, ‘You kin sho tell a lady by whut she doan eat,’ an’ Ah say ter Cookie, ‘Ah ain’ never seed no w’ite lady who et less’n Miss Melly Hamilton did las’ time she wuz visitin’ Mist’ Ashley’—Ah means, visitin’ Miss India.”

Scarlett shot a look of sharp suspicion at her, but Mammy’s broad face carried only a look of innocence and of regret that Scarlett was not the lady Melanie Hamilton was.

“Put down that tray and come lace me tighter,” said Scarlett irritably.

“And I’ll try to eat a little afterwards.

If I ate now I couldn’t lace tight enough.”

Cloaking her triumph, Mammy set down the tray.

“Whut mah lamb gwine wear?”

“That,” answered Scarlett, pointing at the fluffy mass of green flowered muslin.

Instantly Mammy was in arms.

“No, you ain’.

It ain’ fittin’ fer mawnin’.

You kain show yo’ buzzum befo’ three o’clock an’ dat dress ain’ got no neck an’ no sleeves.

An’ you’ll git freckled sho as you born, an’ Ah ain’ figgerin’ on you gittin’ freckled affer all de buttermilk Ah been puttin’ on you all dis winter, bleachin’ dem freckles you got at Savannah settin’ on de beach.

Ah sho gwine speak ter yo’ Ma ’bout you.”

“If you say one word to her before I’m dressed I won’t eat a bite,” said Scarlett coolly.

“Mother won’t have time to send me back to change once I’m dressed.”

Mammy sighed resignedly, beholding herself outguessed.

Between the two evils, it was better to have Scarlett wear an afternoon dress at a morning barbecue than to have her gobble like a hog.

“Hole onter sumpin’ an’ suck in yo’ breaf,” she commanded.

Scarlett obeyed, bracing herself and catching firm hold of one of the bedposts.

Mammy pulled and jerked vigorously and, as the tiny circumference of whalebonegirdled waist grew smaller, a proud, fond look came into her eyes.

“Ain’ nobody got a wais’ lak mah lamb,” she said approvingly.

“Eve’y time Ah pulls Miss Suellen littler dan twenty inches, she up an’ faint.”

“Pooh!” gasped Scarlett, speaking with difficulty.

“I never fainted in my life.”

“Well, ’twouldn’ do no hahm ef you wuz ter faint now an’ den,” advised Mammy.

“You is so brash sometimes, Miss Scarlett.

Ah been aimin’ ter tell you, it jes’ doan look good de way you doan faint ’bout snakes and mouses an’ sech.

Ah doan mean round home but w’en you is out in comp’ny.

An’ Ah has tole you an’—”

“Oh, hurry!

Don’t talk so much.

I’ll catch a husband.

See if I don’t, even if I don’t scream and faint.

Goodness, but my stays are tight!

Put on the dress.”

Mammy carefully dropped the twelve yards of green sprigged muslin over the mountainous petticoats and hooked up the back of the tight, lowcut basque.

“You keep yo’ shawl on yo’ shoulders w’en you is in de sun, an’ doan you go takin’ off yo’ hat w’en you is wahm,” she commanded.

“Elsewise you be comin’ home lookin’ brown lak Ole Miz Slattery.

Now, you come eat, honey, but doan eat too fas’.

No use havin’ it come right back up agin.”

Scarlett obediently sat down before the tray, wondering if she would be able to get any food into her stomach and still have room to breathe.

Mammy plucked a large towel from the washstand and carefully tied it around Scarlett’s neck, spreading the white folds over her lap.

Scarlett began on the ham, because she liked ham, and forced it down.

“I wish to Heaven I was married,” she said resentfully as she attacked the yams with loathing.

“I’m tired of everlastingly being unnatural and never doing anything I want to do.

I’m tired of acting like I don’t eat more than a bird, and walking when I want to run and saying I feel faint after a waltz, when I could dance for two days and never get tired.

I’m tired of saying ‘How wonderful you are!’ to fool men who haven’t got one-half the sense I’ve got, and I’m tired of pretending I don’t know anything, so men can tell me things and feel important while they’re doing it….

I can’t eat another bite.”

“Try a hot cake,” said Mammy inexorably.

“Why is it a girl has to be so silly to catch a husband?”

“Ah specs it’s kase gempmums doan know whut dey wants.

Dey jes’ knows whut dey thinks dey wants.

An’ givin’ dem whut dey thinks dey wants saves a pile of mizry an’ bein’ a ole maid.

An’ dey thinks dey wants mousy lil gals wid bird’s tastes an’ no sense at all.

It doan make a gempmum feel lak mahyin’ a lady ef he suspicions she got mo’ sense dan he has.”

“Don’t you suppose men get surprised after they’re married to find that their wives do have sense?”

“Well, it’s too late den.

Dey’s already mahied.

’Sides, gempmums specs dey wives ter have sense.”

“Some day I’m going to do and say everything I want to do and say, and if people don’t like it I don’t care.”

“No, you ain’,” said Mammy grimly.

“Not while Ah got breaf.

You eat dem cakes.

Sop dem in de gravy, honey.”

“I don’t think Yankee girls have to act like such fools.

When we were at Saratoga last year, I noticed plenty of them acting like they had right good sense and in front of men, too.”

Mammy snorted.

“Yankee gals!

Yas’m, Ah guess dey speaks dey minds awright, but Ah ain’ noticed many of dem gittin’ proposed ter at Saratoga.”

“But Yankees must get married,” argued Scarlett.

“They don’t just grow.

They must get married and have children.

There’s too many of them.”

“Men mahys dem fer dey money,” said Mammy firmly.

Scarlett sopped the wheat cake in the gravy and put it in her mouth.

Perhaps there was something in what Mammy said.

There must be something in it, for Ellen said the same things, in different and more delicate words.

In fact, the mothers of all her girl friends impressed on their daughters the necessity of being helpless, clinging doe-eyed creatures.

Really, it took a lot of sense to cultivate and hold such a pose.

Perhaps she had been too brash.

Occasionally she had argued with Ashley and frankly aired her opinions.

Perhaps this and her healthy enjoyment of walking and riding had turned him from her to the frail Melanie.

Perhaps if she changed her tricks—

But she felt that if Ashley succumbed to premeditated feminine tricks, she could never respect him as she now did.

Any man who was fool enough to fall for a simper, a faint and an “Oh, how wonderful you are!” wasn’t worth having.

But they all seemed to like it.

If she had used the wrong tactics with Ashley in the past—well, that was the past and done with.

Today she would use different ones, the right ones.

She wanted him and she had only a few hours in which to get him.

If fainting, or pretending to faint, would do the trick, then she would faint.

If simpering, coquetry or empty-headedness would attract him, she would gladly play the flirt and be more empty-headed than even Cathleen Calvert.

And if bolder measures were necessary, she would take them.

Today was the day!

There was no one to tell Scarlett that her own personality, frighteningly vital though it was, was more attractive than any masquerade she might adopt.

Had she been told, she would have been pleased but unbelieving.

And the civilization of which she was a part would have been unbelieving too, for at no time, before or since, had so low a premium been placed on feminine naturalness.

********

As the carriage bore her down the red road toward the Wilkes plantation, Scarlett had a feeling of guilty pleasure that neither her mother nor Mammy was with the party.

There would be no one at the barbecue who, by delicately lifted brows or out-thrust underlip, could interfere with her plan of action.

Of course, Suellen would be certain to tell tales tomorrow, but if all went as Scarlett hoped, the excitement of the family over her engagement to Ashley or her elopement would more than overbalance their displeasure.

Yes, she was very glad Ellen had been forced to stay at home.

Gerald, primed with brandy, had given Jonas Wilkerson his dismissal that morning, and Ellen had remained at Tara to go over the accounts of the plantation before he took his departure.

Scarlett had kissed her mother good-by in the little office where she sat before the tall secretary with its paper-stuffed pigeonholes.

Jonas Wilkerson, hat in hand, stood beside her, his sallow tight-skinned face hardly concealing the fury of hate that possessed him at being so unceremoniously turned out of the best overseer’s job in the County.

And all because of a bit of minor philandering.

He had told Gerald over and over that Emmie Slattery’s baby might have been fathered by any one of a dozen men as easily as himself—an idea in which Gerald concurred—but that had not altered his case so far as Ellen was concerned.

Jonas hated all Southerners.

He hated their cool courtesy to him and their contempt for his social status, so inadequately covered by their courtesy.

He hated Ellen O’Hara above anyone else, for she was the epitome of all that he hated in Southerners.

Mammy, as head woman of the plantation, had remained to help Ellen, and it was Dilcey who rode on the driver’s seat beside Toby, the girls’ dancing dresses in a long box across her lap.

Gerald rode beside the carriage on his big hunter, warm with brandy and pleased with himself for having gotten through with the unpleasant business of Wilkerson so speedily.

He had shoved the responsibility onto Ellen, and her disappointment at missing the barbecue and the gathering of her friends did not enter his mind; for it was a fine spring day and his fields were beautiful and the birds were singing and he felt too young and frolicsome to think of anyone else.

Occasionally he burst out with “Peg in a Low-backed Car” and other Irish ditties or the more lugubrious lament for Robert Emmet, “She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps.”

He was happy, pleasantly excited over the prospect of spending the day shouting about the Yankees and the war, and proud of his three pretty daughters in their bright spreading hoop skirts beneath foolish little lace parasols.

He gave no thought to his conversation of the day before with Scarlett, for it had completely slipped his mind.

He only thought that she was pretty and a great credit to him and that, today, her eyes were as green as the hills of Ireland.

The last thought made him think better of himself, for it had a certain poetic ring to it, and so he favored the girls with a loud and slightly off-key rendition of “The Wearin’ o’ the Green.”

Scarlett, looking at him with the affectionate contempt that mothers feel for small swaggering sons, knew that he would be very drunk by sundown.

Coming home in the dark, he would try, as usual, to jump every fence between Twelve Oaks and Tara and, she hoped, by the mercy of Providence and the good sense of his horse, would escape breaking his neck.

He would disdain the bridge and swim his horse through the river and come home roaring, to be put to bed on the sofa in the office by Pork who always waited up with a lamp in the front hall on such occasions.

He would ruin his new gray broadcloth suit, which would cause him to swear horribly in the morning and tell Ellen at great length how his horse fell off the bridge in the darkness—a palpable lie which would fool no one but which would be accepted by all and make him feel very clever.

Pa is a sweet, selfish, irresponsible darling, Scarlett thought, with a surge of affection for him.

She felt so excited and happy this morning that she included the whole world, as well as Gerald, in her affection.

She was pretty and she knew it; she would have Ashley for her own before the day was over; the sun was warm and tender and the glory of the Georgia spring was spread before her eyes.

Along the roadside the blackberry brambles were concealing with softest green the savage red gulches cut by the winter’s rains, and the bare granite boulders pushing up through the red earth were being draped with sprangles of Cherokee roses and compassed about by wild violets of palest purple hue.

Upon the wooded hills above the river, the dogwood blossoms lay glistening and white, as if snow still lingered among the greenery.

The flowering crab trees were bursting their buds and rioting from delicate white to deepest pink and, beneath the trees where the sunshine dappled the pine straw, the wild honeysuckle made a varicolored carpet of scarlet and orange and rose.

There was a faint wild fragrance of sweet shrub on the breeze and the world smelled good enough to eat.

“I’ll remember how beautiful this day is till I die,” thought Scarlett.

“Perhaps it will be my wedding day!”

And she thought with a tingling heart how she and Ashley might ride swiftly through this beauty of blossom and greenery this very afternoon, or tonight by moonlight, toward Jonesboro and a preacher.

Of course, she would have to be remarried by a priest from Atlanta, but that would be something for Ellen and Gerald to worry about.

She quailed a little as she thought how white with mortification Ellen would be at hearing that her daughter had eloped with another girl’s fiancé, but she knew Ellen would forgive her when she saw her happiness.

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And Gerald would scold and bawl but, for all his remarks of yesterday about not wanting her to marry Ashley, he would be pleased beyond words at an alliance between his family and the Wilkeses.

“But that’ll be something to worry about after I’m married,” she thought, tossing the worry from her.

It was impossible to feel anything but palpitating joy in this warm sun, in this spring, with the chimneys of Twelve Oaks just beginning to show on the hill across the river.

“I’ll live there all my life and I’ll see fifty springs like this and maybe more, and I’ll tell my children and my grandchildren how beautiful this spring was, lovelier than any they’ll ever see.”

She was so happy at this last thought that she joined in the last chorus of “The Wearin’ o’ the Green” and won Gerald’s shouted approval.

“I don’t know why you’re so happy this morning,” said Suellen crossly, for the thought still rankled in her mind that she would look far better in Scarlett’s green silk dancing frock than its rightful owner would.

And why was Scarlett always so selfish about lending her clothes and bonnets?

And why did Mother always back her up, declaring green was not Suellen’s color?

“You know as well as I do that Ashley’s engagement is going to be announced tonight.

Pa said so this morning.

And I know you’ve been sweet on him for months.”

“That’s all you know,” said Scarlett, putting out her tongue and refusing to lose her good humor.

How surprised Miss Sue would be by this time tomorrow morning!

“Susie, you know that’s not so,” protested Carreen, shocked.

“It’s Brent that Scarlett cares about.”

Scarlett turned smiling green eyes upon her younger sister, wondering how anyone could be so sweet.

The whole family knew that Carreen’s thirteen-year-old heart was set upon Brent Tarleton, who never gave her a thought except as Scarlett’s baby sister.

When Ellen was not present, the O’Haras teased her to tears about him.

“Darling, I don’t care a thing about Brent,” declared Scarlett, happy enough to be generous.

“And he doesn’t care a thing about me.

Why, he’s waiting for you to grow up!”

Carreen’s round little face became pink, as pleasure struggled with incredulity.

“Oh, Scarlett, really?”

“Scarlett, you know Mother said Carreen was too young to think about beaux yet, and there you go putting ideas in her head.”

“Well, go and tattle and see if I care,” replied Scarlett.

“You want to hold Sissy back, because you know she’s going to be prettier than you in a year or so.”

“You’ll be keeping civil tongues in your heads this day, or I’ll be taking me crop to you,” warned Gerald.

“Now whist!

Is it wheels I’m hearing?

That’ll be the Tarletons or the Fontaines.”

As they neared the intersecting road that came down the thickly wooded hill from Mimosa and Fairhill, the sound of hooves and carriage wheels became plainer and clamorous feminine voices raised in pleasant dispute sounded from behind the screen of trees.

Gerald, riding ahead, pulled up his horse and signed to Toby to stop the carriage where the two roads met.

“’Tis the Tarleton ladies,” he announced to his daughters, his florid face abeam, for excepting Ellen there was no lady in the County he liked more than the red-haired Mrs. Tarleton.

“And ’tis herself at the reins.

Ah, there’s a woman with fine hands for a horse!

Feather light and strong as rawhide, and pretty enough to kiss for all that.

More’s the pity none of you have such hands,” he added, casting fond but reproving glances at his girls.

“With Carreen afraid of the poor beasts and Sue with hands like sadirons when it comes to reins and you, Puss—”

“Well, at any rate I’ve never been thrown,” cried Scarlett indignantly.

“And Mrs. Tarleton takes a toss at every hunt.”

“And breaks a collar bone like a man,” said Gerald.

“No fainting, no fussing.

Now, no more of it, for here she comes.”

He stood up in his stirrups and took off his hat with a sweep, as the Tarleton carriage, overflowing with girls in bright dresses and parasols and fluttering veils, came into view, with Mrs. Tarleton on the box as Gerald had said.

With her four daughters, their mammy and their ball dresses in long cardboard boxes crowding the carriage, there was no room for the coachman.

And, besides, Beatrice Tarleton never willingly permitted anyone, black or white, to hold reins when her arms were out of slings.

Frail, fine-boned, so white of skin that her flaming hair seemed to have drawn all the color from her face into its vital burnished mass, she was nevertheless possessed of exuberant health and untiring energy.

She had borne eight children, as red of hair and as full of life as she, and had raised them most successfully, so the County said, because she gave them all the loving neglect and the stern discipline she gave the colts she bred.

“Curb them but don’t break their spirits,” was Mrs. Tarleton’s motto.

She loved horses and talked horses constantly.

She understood them and handled them better than any man in the County.

Colts overflowed the paddock onto the front lawn, even as her eight children overflowed the rambling house on the hill, and colts and sons and daughters and hunting dogs tagged after her as she went about the plantation.

She credited her horses, especially her red mare, Nellie, with human intelligence; and if the cares of the house kept her busy beyond the time when she expected to take her daily ride, she put the sugar bowl in the hands of some small pickaninny and said: “Give Nellie a handful and tell her I’ll be out terrectly.”

Except on rare occasions she always wore her riding habit, for whether she rode or not she always expected to ride and in that expectation put on her habit upon arising.

Each morning, rain or shine, Nellie was saddled and walked up and down in front of the house, waiting for the time when Mrs.

Tarleton could spare an hour away from her duties.

But Fairhill was a difficult plantation to manage and spare time hard to get, and more often than not Nellie walked up and down riderless hour after hour, while Beatrice Tarleton went through the day with the skirt of her habit absently looped up over her arm and six inches of shining boot showing below it.

Today, dressed in dull black silk over unfashionably narrow hoops, she still looked as though in her habit, for the dress was as severely tailored as her riding costume and the small black hat with its long black plume perched over one warm, twinkling, brown eye was a replica of the battered old hat she used for hunting.

She waved her whip when she saw Gerald and drew her dancing pair of red horses to a halt, and the four girls in the back of the carriage leaned out and gave such vociferous cries of greeting that the team pranced in alarm.

To a casual observer it would seem that years had passed since the Tarletons had seen the O’Haras, instead of only two days.

But they were a sociable family and liked their neighbors, especially the O’Hara girls.

That is, they liked Suellen and Carreen.

No girl in the County, with the possible exception of the empty-headed Cathleen Calvert, really liked Scarlett.

In summers, the County averaged a barbecue and ball nearly every week, but to the red-haired Tarletons with their enormous capacity for enjoying themselves, each barbecue and each ball was as exciting as if it were the first they had ever attended.

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They were a pretty buxom quartette, so crammed into the carriage that their hoops and flounces overlapped and their parasols nudged and bumped together above their wide leghorn sun hats, crowned with roses and dangling with black velvet chin ribbons.

All shades of red hair were represented beneath these hats, Hetty’s plain red hair, Camilla’s strawberry blonde, Randa’s coppery auburn and small Betsy’s carrot top.

“That’s a fine bevy, Ma’m,” said Gerald gallantly, reining his horse alongside the carriage.

“But it’s far they’ll go to beat their mother.”

Mrs. Tarleton rolled her red-brown eyes and sucked in her lower lip in burlesqued appreciation, and the girls cried, “Ma, stop making eyes or we’ll tell Pa!”

“I vow, Mr. O’Hara, she never gives us a chance when there’s a handsome man like you around!”

Scarlett laughed with the rest at these sallies but, as always, the freedom with which the Tarletons treated their mother came as a shock.

They acted as if she were one of themselves and not a day over sixteen.

To Scarlett, the very idea of saying such things to her own mother was almost sacrilegious.

And yet—and yet—there was something very pleasant about the Tarleton girls’ relations with their mother, and they adored her for all that they criticized and scolded and teased her.

Not, Scarlett loyally hastened to tell herself, that she would prefer a mother like Mrs.

Tarleton to Ellen, but still it would be fun to romp with a mother.

She knew that even that thought was disrespectful to Ellen and felt ashamed of it.

She knew no such troublesome thoughts ever disturbed the brains under the four flaming thatches in the carriage and, as always when she felt herself different from her neighbors, an irritated confusion fell upon her.

Quick though her brain was, it was not made for analysis, but she halfconsciously realized that, for all the Tarleton girls were as unruly as colts and wild as March hares, there was an unworried single-mindedness about them that was part of their inheritance.

On both their mother’s and their father’s side they were Georgians, north Georgians, only a generation away from pioneers.

They were sure of themselves and of their environment.

They knew instinctively what they were about, as did the Wilkeses, though in widely divergent ways, and in them there was no such conflict as frequently raged in Scarlett’s bosom where the blood of a soft-voiced, overbred Coast aristocrat mingled with the shrewd, earthy blood of an Irish peasant.

Scarlett wanted to respect and adore her mother like an idol and to rumple her hair and tease her too.

And she knew she should be altogether one way or the other.

It was the same conflicting emotion that made her desire to appear a delicate and high-bred lady with boys and to be, as well, a hoyden who was not above a few kisses.

“Where’s Ellen this morning?” asked Mrs. Tarleton.

“She’s after discharging our overseer and stayed home to go over the accounts with him.

Where’s himself and the lads?”

“Oh, they rode over to Twelve Oaks hours ago—to sample the punch and see if it was strong enough, I dare say, as if they wouldn’t have from now till tomorrow morning to do it!

I’m going to ask John Wilkes to keep them overnight, even if he has to bed them down in the stable.

Five men in their cups are just too much for me.

Up to three, I do very well but—”

Gerald hastily interrupted to change the subject.

He could feel his own daughters snickering behind his back as they remembered in what condition he had come home from the Wilkeses’ last barbecue the autumn before.

“And why aren’t you riding today, Mrs. Tarleton?

Sure, you don’t look yourself at all without Nellie.

It’s a stentor, you are.”

“A stentor, me ignorant broth of a boy!” cried Mrs. Tarleton, aping his brogue.

“You mean a centaur.

Stentor was a man with a voice like a brass gong.”

“Stentor or centaur, ’tis no matter,” answered Gerald, unruffled by his error.

“And ’tis a voice like brass you have, Ma’m, when you’re urging on the hounds, so it is.”

“That’s one on you, Ma,” said Hetty.

“I told you you yelled like a Comanche whenever you saw a fox.”

“But not as loud as you yell when Mammy washes your ears,” returned Mrs. Tarleton.

“And you sixteen!

Well, as to why I’m not riding today, Nellie foaled early this morning.”

“Did she now!” cried Gerald with real interest, his Irishman’s passion for horses shining in his eyes, and Scarlett again felt the sense of shock in comparing her mother with Mrs. Tarleton.

To Ellen, mares never foaled nor cows calved.

In fact, hens almost didn’t lay eggs.

Ellen ignored these matters completely.

But Mrs. Tarleton had no such reticences.

“A little filly, was it?”

“No, a fine little stallion with legs two yards long.

You must ride over and see him, Mr. O’Hara.

He’s a real Tarleton horse.

He’s as red as Hetty’s curls.”

“And looks a lot like Hetty, too,” said Camilla, and then disappeared shrieking amid a welter of skirts and pantalets and bobbing hats, as Hetty, who did have a long face, began pinching her.

“My fillies are feeling their oats this morning,” said Mrs. Tarleton.

“They’ve been kicking up their heels ever since we heard the news this morning about Ashley and that little cousin of his from Atlanta.

What’s her name?

Melanie?

Bless the child, she’s a sweet little thing, but I can never remember either her name or her face.

Our cook is the broad wife of the Wilkes butler, and he was over last night with the news that the engagement would be announced tonight and Cookie told us this morning.

The girls are all excited about it, though I can’t see why.

Everybody’s known for years that Ashley would marry her, that is, if he didn’t marry one of his Burr cousins from Macon.

Just like Honey Wilkes is going to marry Melanie’s brother, Charles.

Now, tell me, Mr. O’Hara, is it illegal for the Wilkes to marry outside of their family?

Because if—”

Scarlett did not hear the rest of the laughing words.

For one short instant, it was as though the sun had ducked behind a cool cloud, leaving the world in shadow, taking the color out of things.

The freshly green foliage looked sickly, the dogwood pallid, and the flowering crab, so beautifully pink a moment ago, faded and dreary.

Scarlett dug her fingers into the upholstery of the carriage and for a moment her parasol wavered.

It was one thing to know that Ashley was engaged but it was another to hear people talk about it so casually.

Then her courage flowed strongly back and the sun came out again and the landscape glowed anew.

She knew Ashley loved her.

That was certain.

And she smiled as she thought how surprised Mrs. Tarleton would be when no engagement was announced that night—how surprised if there were an elopement.

And she’d tell neighbors what a sly boots Scarlett was to sit there and listen to her talk about Melanie when all the time she and Ashley—She dimpled at her own thoughts and Hetty, who had been watching sharply the effect of her mother’s words, sank back with a small puzzled frown.

“I don’t care what you say, Mr. O’Hara,” Mrs. Tarleton was saying emphatically.

“It’s all wrong, this marrying of cousins.

It’s bad enough for Ashley to be marrying the Hamilton child, but for Honey to be marrying that pale-looking Charles Hamilton—”

----------------------------------------------------------

“Honey’ll never catch anybody else if she doesn’t marry Charlie,” said Randa, cruel and secure in her own popularity.

“She’s never had another beau except him.

And he’s never acted very sweet on her, for all that they’re engaged.

Scarlett, you remember how he ran after you last Christmas—”

“Don’t be a cat, Miss,” said her mother.

“Cousins shouldn’t marry, even second cousins.

It weakens the strain.

It isn’t like horses.

You can breed a mare to a brother or a sire to a daughter and get good results if you know your blood strains, but in people it just doesn’t work.

You get good lines, perhaps, but no stamina.

You—”

“Now, Ma’m, I’m taking issue with you on that!

Can you name me better people than the Wilkes?

And they’ve been intermarrying since Brian Boru was a boy.”

“And high time they stopped it, for it’s beginning to show.

Oh, not Ashley so much, for he’s a good-looking devil, though even he—But look at those two washed-out-looking Wilkes girls, poor things!

Nice girls, of course, but washed out.

And look at little Miss Melanie.

Thin as a rail and delicate enough for the wind to blow away and no spirit at all.

Not a notion of her own.

‘No, Ma’m!’

‘Yes, Ma’m!’

That’s all she has to say.

You see what I mean?

That family needs new blood, fine vigorous blood like my red heads or your Scarlett.

Now, don’t misunderstand me.

The Wilkes are fine folks in their way, and you know I’m fond of them all, but be frank!

They are overbred and inbred too, aren’t they?

They’ll do fine on a dry track, a fast track, but mark my words, I don’t believe the Wilkes can run on a mud track.

I believe the stamina has been bred out of them, and when the emergency arises I don’t believe they can run against odds.

Dry-weather stock.

Give me a big horse who can run in any weather!

And their intermarrying has made them different from other folks around here.

Always fiddling with the piano or sticking their heads in a book.

I do believe Ashley would rather read than hunt!

Yes, I honestly believe that, Mr. O’Hara!

And just look at the bones of them.

Too slender.

They need dams and sires with strength—”

“Ah-ah-hum,” said Gerald, suddenly and guiltily aware that the conversation, a most interesting and entirely proper one to him, would seem quite otherwise to Ellen.

In fact, he knew she would never recover should she learn that her daughters had been exposed to so frank a conversation.

But Mrs. Tarleton was, as usual, deaf to all other ideas when pursuing her favorite topic, breeding, whether it be horses or humans.

“I know what I’m talking about because I had some cousins who married each other and I give you my word their children all turned out as pop-eyed as bullfrogs, poor things.

And when my family wanted me to marry a second cousin, I bucked like a colt.

I said, ‘No, Ma.

Not for me.

My children will all have spavins and heaves.’

Well, Ma fainted when I said that about spavins, but I stood firm and Grandma backed me up.

She knew a lot about horse breeding too, you see, and said I was right.

And she helped me run away with Mr. Tarleton.

And look at my children!

Big and healthy and not a sickly one or a runt among them, though Boyd is only five feet ten.

Now, the Wilkes—”

“Not meaning to change the subject, Ma’m,” broke in Gerald hurriedly, for he had noticed Carreen’s bewildered look and the avid curiosity on Suellen’s face and feared lest they might ask Ellen embarrassing questions which would reveal how inadequate a chaperon he was.

Puss, he was glad to notice, appeared to be thinking of other matters as a lady should.

Hetty Tarleton rescued him from his predicament.

“Good Heavens, Ma, do let’s get on!” she cried impatiently.

“This sun is broiling me and I can just hear freckles popping out on my neck.”

“Just a minute, Ma’m, before you go,” said Gerald.

“But what have you decided to do about selling us the horses for the Troop?

War may break any day now and the boys want the matter settled.

It’s a Clayton County troop and it’s Clayton County horses we want for them.

But you, obstinate creature that you are, are still refusing to sell us your fine beasts.”

“Maybe there won’t be any war,” Mrs. Tarleton temporized, her mind diverted completely from the Wilkeses’ odd marriage habits.

“Why, Ma’m, you can’t—”

“Ma,” Hetty interrupted again, “can’t you and Mr.

O’Hara talk about the horses at Twelve Oaks as well as here?”

“That’s just it, Miss Hetty,” said Gerald, “and I won’t be keeping you but one minute by the clock.

We’ll be getting to Twelve Oaks in a little bit, and every man there, old and young, wanting to know about the horses.

Ah, but it’s breaking me heart to see such a fine pretty lady as your mother so stingy with her beasts!

Now, where’s your patriotism, Mrs. Tarleton?

Does the Confederacy mean nothing to you at all?”

“Ma,” cried small Betsy, “Randa’s sitting on my dress and I’m getting all wrinkled.”

“Well, push Randa off you, Betsy, and hush.

Now, listen to me, Gerald O’Hara,” she retorted, her eyes beginning to snap.

“Don’t you go throwing the Confederacy in my face!

I reckon the Confederacy means as much to me as it does to you, me with four boys in the Troop and you with none.

But my boys can take care of themselves and my horses can’t.

I’d gladly give the horses free of charge if I knew they were going to be ridden by boys I know, gentlemen used to thoroughbreds.

No, I wouldn’t hesitate a minute.

But let my beauties be at the mercy of backwoodsmen and Crackers who are used to riding mules!

No, sir!

I’d have nightmares thinking they were being ridden with saddle galls and not groomed properly.

Do you think I’d let ignorant fools ride my tender-mouthed darlings and saw their mouths to pieces and beat them till their spirits were broken?

Why, I’ve got goose flesh this minute, just thinking about it!

No, Mr. O’Hara, you’re mighty nice to want my horses, but you’d better go to Atlanta and buy some old plugs for your clodhoppers.

They’ll never know the difference.”

“Ma, can’t we please go on?” asked Camilla, joining the impatient chorus.

“You know mighty well you’re going to end up giving them your darlings anyhow.

When Pa and the boys get through talking about the Confederacy needing them and so on, you’ll cry and let them go.”

Mrs. Tarleton grinned and shook the lines.

“I’ll do no such thing,” she said, touching the horses lightly with the whip.

The carriage went off swiftly.

“That’s a fine woman,” said Gerald, putting on his hat and taking his place beside his own carriage.

“Drive on, Toby.

We’ll wear her down and get the horses yet.

Of course, she’s right.

She’s right.

If a man’s not a gentleman, he’s no business on a horse.

The infantry is the place for him.

But more’s the pity, there’s not enough planters’ sons in this County to make up a full troop.

What did you say, Puss?”

“Pa, please ride behind us or in front of us.

You kick up such a heap of dust that we’re choking,” said Scarlett, who felt that she could endure conversation no longer.

It distracted her from her thoughts and she was very anxious to arrange both her thoughts and her face in attractive lines before reaching Twelve Oaks.

Gerald obediently put spurs to his horse and was off in a red cloud after the Tarleton carriage where he could continue his horsy conversation.