Melanie was white and her eyes were enormous.
"I will speak to him again," she said in a low voice. "I will not be rude to him. I will not forbid him the house."
Mrs. Merriwether's breath went out of her lungs as explosively as though she had been
punched. Aunt Pitty's fat mouth popped open and Uncle Peter turned to stare.
"Now, why didn't I have the gumption to say that?" thought Scarlett, jealousy mixing with admiration. "How did that little rabbit ever get up spunk enough to stand up to old lady Merriwether?"
Melanie's hands were shaking but she went on hurriedly, as though fearing her courage
would fail her if she delayed.
"I won't be rude to him because of what he said, because--It was rude of him to say it out loud--most ill advised--but it's--it's what Ashley thinks. And I can't forbid the house to a man who thinks what my husband thinks. It would be unjust."
Mrs. Merriwether's breath had come back and she charged.
"Melly Hamilton, I never heard such a lie in all my life! There was never a Wilkes who was a coward--"
"I never said Ashley was a coward," said Melanie, her eyes beginning to flash. "I said he thinks what Captain Butler thinks, only he expresses it in different words. And he doesn't go around saying it at musicales, I hope. But he has written it to me."
Scarlett's guilty conscience stirred as she tried to recall what Ashley might have written that would lead Melanie to make such a statement, but most of the letters she had read had gone out of her head as soon as she finished reading them. She believed Melanie had simply taken leave of her senses.
"Ashley wrote me that we should not be fighting the Yankees. And that we have been
betrayed into it by statesmen and orators mouthing catchwords and prejudices," said Melly rapidly. "He said nothing in the world was worth what this war was going to do to us. He said here wasn't anything at all to glory--it was just misery and dirt."
"Oh! That letter," thought Scarlett. "Was that what he meant?"
"I don't believe it," said Mrs. Merriwether firmly. "You misunderstood his meaning."
"I never misunderstand Ashley," Melanie replied quietly, though her lips were trembling.
"I understand him perfectly. He meant exactly what Captain Butler meant, only he didn't say it in a rude way."
"You should be ashamed of yourself, comparing a fine man like Ashley Wilkes to a
scoundrel like Captain Butler! I suppose you, too, think the Cause is nothing!"
"I--I don't know what I think," Melanie began uncertainly, her fire deserting her and panic at her outspokenness taking hold of her. "I--I'd die for the Cause, like Ashley would. But--I mean--I mean, I'll let the men folks do the thinking, because they are so much smarter."
"I never heard the like," snorted Mrs. Merriwether. "Stop, Uncle Peter, you're driving past my house!"
Uncle Peter, preoccupied with the conversation behind him, had driven past the Merriwether carriage block and he backed up the horse. Mrs. Merriwether alighted, her bonnet ribbons shaking like sails in a storm.
"You'll be sorry," she said.
Uncle Peter whipped up the horse.
"You young misses ought ter tek shame, gittin' Miss Pitty in a state," he scolded.
"I'm not in a state," replied Pitty, surprisingly, for less strain than this had frequently brought on fainting fits. "Melly, honey, I knew you were doing it just to take up for me and, really, I was glad to see somebody take Dolly down a peg. She's so bossy. How did you have the courage? But do you think you should have said that about Ashley?"
"But it's true," answered Melanie and she began to cry softly. "And I'm not ashamed that he thinks that way. He thinks the war is all wrong but he's willing to fight and die anyway, and that takes lots more courage than fighting for something you think is right."
"Lawd, Miss Melly, doan cry hyah on Peachtree Street," groaned Uncle Peter, hastening his horse's pace. "Folks'll talk sumpin' scan'lous. Wait till us gits home."
Scarlett said nothing. She did not even squeeze the hand that Melanie had inserted into
her palm for comfort. She had read Ashley's letters for only one purpose--to assure herself that he still loved her. Now Melanie had given a new meaning to passages in the letters which Scarlett's eyes had barely seen. It shocked her to realize that anyone as absolutely perfect as Ashley could have any thought in common with such a reprobate as Rhett Butler. She thought: "They both see the truth of this war, but Ashley is willing to die about it and Rhett isn't. I think that shows Rhett's good sense." She paused a moment, horror struck that she could have such a thought about Ashley. "They both see the same unpleasant truth, but Rhett likes to look it in the face and enrage people by talking about it--and Ashley can hardly bear to face it"