India was torn between the desire to shield Ashley by her silence and to extricate him by telling all her suspicions to Melanie and the whole world. That would force Scarlett to release whatever hold she had on Ashley. But this was not the time. She had nothing definite, only suspicions.
"I retract nothing," she repeated.
"Then it is fortunate that you are no longer living under my roof," said Melanie and her words were cold.
India leaped to her feet, red flooding her sallow face.
"Melanie, you--my sister-in-law--you aren't going to quarrel with me over that fast
piece--"
"Scarlett is my sister-in-law, too," said Melanie, meeting India's eyes squarely as though they were strangers. "And dearer to me than any blood sister could ever be. If you are so forgetful of my favors at her hands, I am not. She stayed with me through the whole siege when she could have gone home, when even Aunt Pitty had run away to Macon. She brought my baby for me
when the Yankees were almost in Atlanta and she burdened herself with me and Beau all that dreadful trip to Tara when she could have left me here in a hospital for the Yankees to get me.
And she nursed and fed me, even if she was tired and even if she went hungry. Because I was sick and weak, I had the best mattress at Tara. When I could walk, I had the only whole pair of shoes. You can forget those things she did for me, India, but I cannot. And when Ashley came home, sick, discouraged, without a home, without a cent in his pockets, she took him in like a sister. And when we thought we would have to go North and it was breaking our hearts to leave Georgia, Scarlett stepped in and gave him the mill to run. And Captain Butler saved Ashley's life
out of the kindness of his heart. Certainly Ashley had no claim on him! And I am grateful, grateful to Scarlett and to Captain Butler. But you, India! How can you forget the favors Scarlett has done me and Ashley? How can you hold your brother's life so cheap as to cast slurs on the man who saved him? If you went down on your knees to Captain Butler and Scarlett, it would not be enough."
"Now, Melly," began Mrs. Merriwether briskly, for she had recovered her composure,
"that's no way to talk to India."
"I heard what you said about Scarlett too," cried Melanie, swinging on the stout old lady with the air of a duelist who, having withdrawn a blade from one prostrate opponent, turns hungrily toward another. "And you too, Mrs. Elsing. What you think of her in your own petty minds, I do not care, for that is your business. But what you say about her in my own house or in my own hearing, ever, is my business. But how can you even think such dreadful things, much less say them? Are your men so cheap to you that you would rather see them dead than alive?
Have you no gratitude to the man who saved them and saved them at risk of his own life? The Yankees might easily have thought him a member of the Klan if the whole truth had come out!
They might have hanged him. But he risked himself for your men. For your father-in-law, Mrs.
Merriwether, and your son-in-law and your two nephews, too. And your brother, Mrs. Bonnell, and your son and son-in-law, Mrs. Elsing. Ingrates, that's what you are! I ask an apology from all of you."
Mrs. Elsing was on her feet cramming her sewing into her box, her mouth set.
"If anyone had ever told me that you could be so ill bred, Melly--No, I will not apologize.
India is right Scarlett is a flighty, fast bit of baggage. I can't forget how she acted during the war.
And I can't forget how poor white trashy she's acted since she got a little money--"
"What you can't forget" cut in Melanie, clenching her small fists against her sides, "is that she demoted Hugh because he wasn't smart enough to run her mill."
"Melly!" moaned a chorus of voices.
Mrs. Elsing's head jerked up and she started toward the door. With her hand on the knob
of the front door, she stopped and turned.
"Melly," she said and her voice softened, "honey, this breaks my heart. I was your mother's best friend and I helped Dr. Meade bring you into this world and I've loved you like you were mine. If it were something that mattered it wouldn't be so hard to hear you talk like this. But about a woman like Scarlett O'Hara who'd just as soon do you a dirty turn as the next of us--"
Tears had started in Melanie's eyes at the first words Mrs. Elsing spoke, but her face
hardened when the old lady had finished.
"I want it understood," she said, "that any of you who do not call on Scarlett need never, never call on me."
There was a loud murmur of voices, confusion as the ladies got to their feet Mrs. Elsing