No, Scarlett did not like to remember the way the deserted County looked. It seemed even
sadder, in retrospect beside the bustle and prosperity of Atlanta.
"Has anything happened here?" she asked when they were finally home and were seated on the front porch. She had talked rapidly and continuously all the way home, fearing that a silence would fall. She had not had a word alone with Rhett since that day when she fell down the steps and she was none too anxious to be alone with him now. She did not know how he felt
toward her. He had been kindness itself during her miserable convalescence, but it was the kindness of an impersonal stranger. He had anticipated her wants, kept the children from
bothering her and supervised the store and the mills. But he had never said: "I'm sorry." Well, perhaps he wasn't sorry. Perhaps he still thought that child that was never born was not his child.
How could she tell what went on in the mind behind the bland dark face? But he had showed a disposition to be courteous, for the first time in their married life, and a desire to let life go on as though there had never been anything unpleasant between them--as though, thought Scarlett cheerlessly, as though there had never been anything at all between them. Well, if that was what he wanted, she could act her part too.
"Is everything all right?" she repeated. "Did you get the new shingles for the store? Did you swap the mules? For Heaven's sake, Rhett, take those feathers out of your hat. You look a fool and you'll be likely to wear them downtown without remembering to take them out."
"No," said Bonnie, picking up her father's hat defensively.
"Everything has gone very well here," replied Rhett. "Bonnie and I have had a nice time and I don't believe her hair has been combed since you left. Don't suck the feathers, darling, they may be nasty. Yes, the shingles are fixed and I got a good trade on the mules. No, there's really no news. Everything has been quite dull."
Then, as an afterthought he added: "The honorable Ashley was over here last night. He wanted to know if I thought you would sell him your mill and the part interest you have in his."
Scarlett who had been rocking and fanning herself with a turkey tail fan, stopped abruptly.
"Sell? Where on earth did Ashley get the money? You know they never have a cent.
Melanie spends it as fast as he makes it."
Rhett shrugged. "I always thought her a frugal little person, but then I'm not as well informed about the intimate details of the Wilkes family as you seem to be."
That jab seemed in something of Rhett's old style and Scarlett grew annoyed.
"Run away, dear," she said to Bonnie. "Mother wants to talk to Father."
"No," said Bonnie positively and climbed upon Rhett's lap.
Scarlett frowned at her child and Bonnie scowled back in so complete a resemblance to
Gerald O'Hara that Scarlett almost laughed.
"Let her stay," said Rhett comfortably. "As to where he got the money, it seems it was sent him by someone he nursed through a case of smallpox at Rock Island. It renews my faith in human nature to know that gratitude still exists."
"Who was it? Anyone we know?"
"The letter was unsigned and came from Washington. Ashley was at a loss to know who
could have sent it. But then, one of Ashley's unselfish temperament goes about the world doing so many good deeds that you can't expect him to remember all of them."
Had she not been so surprised at Ashley's windfall, Scarlett would have taken up this
gauntlet, although while at Tara she had decided that never again would she permit herself to be involved in any quarrel with Rhett about Ashley. The ground on which she stood in this matter was entirely too uncertain and, until she knew exactly where she stood with both men, she did not care to be drawn out.
"He wants to buy me out?"
"Yes. But Of course, I told him you wouldn't sell."
"I wish you'd let me mind my own business."
"Well, you know you wouldn't part with the mills. I told him that he knew as well as I did that you couldn't bear not to have your finger in everybody's pie, and if you sold out to him, then you wouldn't be able to tell him how to mind his own business."
"You dared say that to him about me?"
"Why not? It's true, isn't it? I believe he heartily agreed with me but of course, he was too much of a gentleman to come right out and say so."
"It's a lie! I will sell them to him!" cried Scarlett angrily.
Until that moment, she had had no idea of parting with the mills. She had several reasons for wanting to keep them and their monetary value was the least reason. She could have sold them for large sums any time in the last few years, but she had refused all offers. The mills were the tangible evidence of what she had done, unaided and against great odds, and she was proud of them and of herself. Most of all, she did not want to sell them because they were the only path that lay open to Ashley. If the mills went from her control it would mean that she would seldom see Ashley and probably never see him alone. And she had to see him alone. She could not go on this way any longer, wondering what his feelings toward her were now, wondering if all his love had died in shame since the dreadful night of Melanie's party. In the course of business she could find many opportune times for conversations without it appearing to anyone that she was seeking him out. And, given time, she knew she could gain back whatever ground she had lost in his heart. But if she sold the mills--