Gone with the Wind

“I’ve gotten mighty tired of hearing people criticize you, darling,” Melanie said, “and this is the last straw and I’m going to do something about it. All this has happened because people are jealous of you, because you are so smart and successful. You’ve succeeded where lots of men, even, have failed. Now, don’t be vexed with me, dear, for saying that. I don’t mean you’ve ever been unwomanly or unsexed yourself, as lots of folks have said. Because you haven’t. People just don’t understand you and people can’t bear for women to be smart. But your smartness and your success don’t give people the right to say that you and Ashley-Stars above!”

The soft vehemence of this last ejaculation would have been, upon a man’s lips, profanity of no uncertain meaning. Scarlett stared at her, alarmed by so unprecedented an outburst.

“And for them to come to me with the filthy lies they’d concocted-Archie, India, Mrs. Elsing! How did they dare? Of course, Mrs. Elsing didn’t come here. No, indeed, she didn’t have the courage. But she’s always hated you, darling, because you were more popular than Fanny. And she was so incensed at your demoting Hugh from the management of the mill. But you were quite right in demoting him. He’s just a piddling, do-less, good-for-nothing!” Swiftly Melanie dismissed the playmate of her childhood and the beau of her teen years. “I blame myself about Archie. I shouldn’t have given the old scoundrel shelter. Everyone told me so but I wouldn’t listen. He didn’t like you, dear, because of the convicts, but who is he to criticize you? A murderer, and the murderer of a woman, too! And after all I’ve done for him, he comes to me and tells me- I shouldn’t have been a bit sorry if Ashley had shot him. Well, I packed him off with a large flea in his ear, I can tell you! And he’s left town.

“And as for India, the vile thing! Darling, I couldn’t help noticing from the first time I saw you two together that she was jealous of you and hated you, because you were so much prettier and had so many beaux. And she hated you especially about Stuart Tarleton. And she’s brooded about Stuart so much that-well, I hate to say it about Ashley’s sister but I think her mind has broken with thinking so much! There’s no other explanation for her action… I told her never to put foot in this house again and that if I heard her breathe so vile an insinuation I would-I would call her a liar in public!”

Melanie stopped speaking and abruptly the anger left her face and sorrow swamped it. Melanie had all that passionate clan loyalty peculiar to Georgians and the thought of a family quarrel tore her heart. She faltered for a moment. But Scarlett was dearest, Scarlett came first in her heart, and she went on loyally:

“She’s always been jealous because I loved you best, dear. She’ll never come in this house again and I’ll never put foot under any roof that receives her. Ashley agrees with me, but it’s just about broken his heart that his own sister should tell such a-”

At the mention of Ashley’s name, Scarlett’s overwrought nerves gave way and she burst into tears. Would she never stop stabbing him to the heart? Her only thought had been to make him happy and safe but at every turn she seemed to hurt him. She had wrecked his life, broken his pride and self-respect, shattered that inner peace, that calm based on integrity. And now she had alienated him from the sister he loved so dearly. To save her own reputation and his wife’s happiness, India had to be sacrificed, forced into the light of a lying, half-crazed, jealous old maid-India who was absolutely justified in every suspicion she had ever harbored and every accusing word she had uttered. Whenever Ashley looked into India’s eyes, he would see the truth shining there, truth and reproach and the cold contempt of which the Wilkeses were masters.

Knowing how Ashley valued honor above his life, Scarlett knew he must be writhing. He, like Scarlett, was forced to shelter behind Melanie’s skirts. While Scarlett realized the necessity for this and knew that the blame for his false position lay mostly at her own door, still-still-Womanlike she would have respected Ashley more, had he shot Archie and admitted everything to Melanie and the world. She knew she was being unfair but she was too miserable to care for such fine points. Some of Rhett’s taunting words of contempt came back to her and she wondered if indeed Ashley had played the manly part in this mess. And, for the first time, some of the bright glow which had enveloped him since the first day she fell in love with him began to fade imperceptibly. The tarnish of shame and guilt that enveloped her spread to him as well. Resolutely she tried to fight off this thought but it only made her cry harder.