swish of skirts and a faint fragrance of sachet, her small busy hands tireless in the service of others, loved, respected, cherished. And suddenly her heart was sick.
"If you are trying to devil me," she said tiredly, "it's no use. I know I'm not as--scrupulous as I should be these days. Not as kind and as pleasant as I was brought up to be. But I can't help it, Rhett. Truly, I can't. What else could I have done? What would have happened to me, to Wade, to Tara and all of us if I'd been--gentle when that Yankee came to Tara? I should have been--but I don't even want to think of that. And when Jonas Wilkerson was going to take the home place, suppose I'd been--kind and scrupulous? Where would we all be now? And if I'd been sweet and simple minded and not nagged Frank about bad debts we'd--oh, well. Maybe I am a rogue, but I won't be a rogue forever, Rhett. But during these past years--and even now--what else could I have done? How else could I have acted? I've felt that I was trying to row a heavily loaded boat in a storm. I've had so much trouble just trying to keep afloat that I couldn't be bothered about things that didn't matter, things I could part with easily and not miss, like good manners and--
well, things like that. I've been too afraid my boat would be swamped and so I've dumped
overboard the things that seemed least important."
"Pride and honor and truth and virtue and kindliness," he enumerated silkily. "You are right, Scarlett. They aren't important when a boat is sinking. But look around you at your friends.
Either they are bringing their boats ashore safely with cargoes intact or they are content to go down with all flags flying."
"They are a passel of fools," she said shortly. "There's a time for all things. When I've got plenty of money, I'll be nice as you please, too. Butter won't melt in my mouth. I can afford to be then."
"You can afford to be--but you won't. It's hard to salvage jettisoned cargo and, if it is retrieved, it's usually irreparably damaged. And I fear that when you can afford to fish up the honor and virtue and kindness you've thrown overboard, you'll find they have suffered a sea change and not, I fear, into something rich and strange…"
He rose suddenly and picked up his hat.
"You are going?"
"Yes. Aren't you relieved? I leave you to what remains of your conscience."
He paused and looked down at the baby, putting out a finger for the child to grip.
"I suppose Frank is bursting with pride?"
"Oh, of course."
"Has a lot of plans for this baby, I suppose?"
"Oh, well, you know how silly men are about their babies."
"Then, tell him," said Rhett and stopped short, an odd look on his face, "tell him if he wants to see his plans for his child work out, he'd better stay home at night more often than he's doing."
"What do you mean?"
"Just what I say. Tell him to stay home."
"Oh, you vile creature! To insinuate that poor Frank would--"
"Oh, good Lord!" Rhett broke into a roar of laughter. "I didn't mean he was running around with women! Frank! Oh, good Lord!"
He went down the steps still laughing.
CHAPTER XLIV
THE MARCH AFTERNOON was windy and cold, and Scarlett pulled the lap robe high under
her arms as she drove out the Decatur road toward Johnnie Gallegher's mill. Driving alone was hazardous these days and she knew it, more hazardous than ever before, for now the negroes were completely out of hand. As Ashley had prophesied, there had been hell to pay since the legislature refused to ratify the amendment. The stout refusal had been like a slap in the face of the furious North and retaliation had come swiftly. The North was determined to force the negro vote on the state and, to this end, Georgia had been declared in rebellion and put under the strictest martial law. Georgia's very existence as a state had been wiped out and it had become, with Florida and Alabama, "Military District Number Three," under the command of a Federal general.
If life had been insecure and frightening before this, it was doubly so now. The military regulations which had seemed so stringent the year before were now mild by comparison with the ones issued by General Pope. Confronted with the prospect of negro rule, the future seemed dark and hopeless, and the embittered state smarted and writhed helplessly. As for the negroes, their new importance went to their heads, and, realizing that they had the Yankee Army behind them, their outrages increased. No one was safe from them.
In this wild and fearful time, Scarlett was frightened--frightened but determined, and she still made her rounds alone, with Frank's pistol tucked in the upholstery of the buggy. She silently cursed the legislature for bringing this worse disaster upon them all. What good had it done, this fine brave stand, this gesture which everyone called gallant? It had just made matters so much worse.