"Well!" said Mrs. Merriwether showing the letter to Mrs. Elsing. "You can knock me down with a feather! Maybe we did misjudge the scamp about not being a soldier. Maybe we
should have believed what Scarlett and Melanie said about him enlisting the day the town fell.
But, just the same, he's a Scalawag and a rascal and I don't like him!"
"Somehow," said Mrs. Elsing uncertainly, "somehow, I don't think he's so bad. A man who fought for the Confederacy can't be all bad. It's Scarlett who is the bad one. Do you know, Dolly, I really believe that he--well, he's ashamed of Scarlett but is too much of a gentleman to let on."
"Ashamed! Pooh! They're both cut out of the same piece of cloth. Where did you ever get such a silly notion?"
"It isn't silly," said Mrs. Elsing indignantly. "Yesterday, in the pouring rain, he had those three children, even the baby, mind you, out in his carriage riding them up and down Peachtree Street and he gave me a lift home. And when I said: 'Captain Butler, have you lost your mind keeping these children out in the damp? Why don't you take them home?' And he didn't say a word but just looked embarrassed. But Mammy spoke up and said: 'De house full of w'ite trash an' it healthier fer de chillun in de rain dan at home!' "
"What did he say?"
"What could he say? He just scowled at Mammy and passed it over. You know Scarlett
was giving a big whist party yesterday afternoon with all those common ordinary women there. I guess he didn't want them kissing his baby."
"Well!" said Mrs. Merriwether, wavering but still obstinate. But the next week she, too, capitulated.
Rhett now had a desk in the bank. What he did at this desk the bewildered officials of the bank did not know, but he owned too large a block of the stock for them to protest his presence there. After a while they forgot that they had objected to him for he was quiet and well mannered and actually knew something about banking and investments. At any rate he sat at his desk all day, giving every appearance of industry, for he wished to be on equal terms with his respectable fellow townsmen who worked and worked hard.
Mrs. Merriwether, wishing to expand her growing bakery, had tried to borrow two
thousand dollars from the bank with her house as security. She had been refused because there were already two mortgages on the house. The stout old lady was storming out of the bank when Rhett stopped her, learned the trouble and said, worriedly: "But there must be some mistake, Mrs.
Merriwether. Some dreadful mistake. You of all people shouldn't have to bother about collateral.
Why, I'd lend you money just on your word! Any lady who could build up the business you've built up is the best risk in the world. The bank wants to lend money to people like you. Now, do sit down right here in my chair and I will attend to it for you."
When he came back he was smiling blandly, saying that there had been a mistake, just as
he had thought. The two thousand dollars was right there waiting for her whenever she cared to draw against it. Now, about her house--would she just sign right here?
Mrs. Merriwether, torn with indignation and insult, furious that she had to take this favor from a man she disliked and distrusted, was hardly gracious in her thanks.
But he failed to notice it As he escorted her to the door, he said: "Mrs. Merriwether, I have always had a great regard for your knowledge and I wonder if you could tell me
something?"
The plumes on her bonnet barely moved as she nodded.
"What did you do when your Maybelle was little and she sucked her thumb?"
"What?"
"My Bonnie sucks her thumb. I can't make her stop it."
"You should make her stop it," said Mrs. Merriwether vigorously. "It will ruin the shape of her mouth."
"I know! I know! And she has a beautiful mouth. But I don't know what to do."
"Well, Scarlett ought to know," said Mrs. Merriwether shortly. "She's had two other children."
Rhett looked down at his shoes and sighed.
"I've tried putting soap under her finger nails," he said, passing over her remark about Scarlett.
"Soap! Bah! Soap is no good at all. I put quinine on Maybelle's thumb and let me tell you, Captain Butler, she stopped sucking that thumb mighty quick."
"Quinine! I would never have thought of it! I can't thank you enough, Mrs. Merriwether.
It was worrying me."
He gave her a smile, so pleasant, so grateful that Mrs. Merriwether stood uncertainly for a moment. But as she told him good-by she was smiling too. She hated to admit to Mrs. Elsing that she had misjudged the man but she was an honest person and she said there had to be something good about a man who loved his child. What a pity Scarlett took no interest in so pretty a creature as Bonnie! There was something pathetic about a man trying to raise a little girl all by himself!