“Well, tell me about your poverty. Did Frank, the brute, mislead you about his prospects? He should be soundly thrashed for taking advantage of a helpless female. Come, Scarlett. tell me everything. You should have no secrets from me. Surely, I know the worst about you.”
“Oh, Rhett. you’re the worst—well, I don’t know what! No, he didn’t exactly fool me but—” Suddenly it became a pleasure to unburden herself. “Rhett, if Frank would just collect the money people owe him, I wouldn’t be worried about anything. But, Rhett, fifty people owe him and he won’t press them. He’s so thin skinned. He says a gentleman can’t do that to another gentleman. And it may be months and may be never before we get the money.”
“Well, what of it? Haven’t you enough to eat on until he does collect?”
“Yes, but—well, as a matter of fact, I could use a little money right now.” Her eyes brightened as she thought of the mill. Perhaps—“What for? More taxes?”
“Is that any of your business?”
“Yes, because you are getting ready to touch me for a loan. Oh, I know all the approaches. And I’ll lend it to you—without, my dear Mrs. Kennedy, that charming collateral you offered me a short while ago. Unless, of course, you insist.”
“You are the coarsest—”
“Not at all. I merely wanted to set your mind at ease. I knew you’d be worried about that point. Not much worried but a little. And I’m willing to lend you the money. But I do want to know how you are going to spend it. I have that right, I believe. If it’s to buy you pretty frocks or a carriage, take it with my blessing. But if it’s to buy a new pair of breeches for Ashley Wilkes, I fear I must decline to lend it.”
She was hot with sudden rage and she stuttered until words came.
“Ashley Wilkes has never taken a cent from me! I couldn’t make him take a cent if he were starving! You don’t understand him, how honorable, how proud he is! Of course, you can’t understand him, being what you are—”
“Don’t let’s begin calling names. I could call you a few that would match any you could think of for me. You forget that I have been keeping up with you through Miss Pittypat, and the dear soul tells all she knows to any sympathetic listener. I know that Ashley has been at Tara ever since he came home from Rock Island. I know that you have even put up with having his wife around, which must have been a strain on you.”
“Ashley is—”
“Oh, yes,” he said, waving his hand negligently. “Ashley is too sublime for my earthy comprehension. But please don’t forget I was an interested witness to your tender scene with him at Twelve Oaks and something tells me he hasn’t changed since then. And neither have you. He didn’t cut so sublime a figure that day, if I remember rightly. And I don’t think the figure he cuts now is much better. Why doesn’t he take his family and get out and find work? And stop living at Tara? Of course, it’s just a whim of mine, but I don’t intend to tend you a cent for Tara to help support him. Among men, there’s a very unpleasant name for men who permit women to support them.”
“How dare you say such things? He’s been working like a field hand!” For all her rage, her heart was wrung by the memory of Ashley splitting fence rails.
“And worth his weight in gold, I dare say. What a hand he must be with the manure and—”
“He’s—”
“Oh, yes, I know. Let’s grant that he does the best he can but I don’t imagine he’s much help. You’ll never make a farm hand out of a Wilkes—or anything else that’s useful. The breed is purely ornamental. Now, quiet your ruffled feathers and overlook my boorish remarks about the proud and honorable Ashley. Strange how these illusions will persist even in women as hard headed as you are. How much money do you want and what do you want it for?”
When she did not answer he repeated:
“What do you want it for? And see if you can manage to tell me the truth. It will do as well as a lie. In fact, better, for if you lie to me, I’ll be sure to find it out, and think how embarrassing that would be. Always remember this, Scarlett, I can stand anything from you but a lie—your dislike for me, your tempers, all your vixenish ways, but not a lie. Now what do you want it for?”
Raging as she was at his attack on Ashley, she would have given anything to spit on him and throw his offer of money proudly into his mocking face. For a moment she almost did, but the cold hand of common sense held her back. She swallowed her anger with poor grace and tried to assume an expression of pleasant dignity. He leaned back in his chair, stretching his legs toward the stove.
“If there’s one thing in the world that gives me more amusement than anything else,” he remarked, “it’s the sight of your mental struggles when a matter of principle is laid up against something practical like money. Of course, I know the practical in you will always win, but I keep hanging around to see if your better nature won’t triumph some day. And when that day comes I shall pack my bag and leave Atlanta forever. There are too many women whose better natures are always triumphing. ... Well, let’s get back to business. How much and what for?”
“I don’t know quite how much I’ll need,” she said sulkily. “But I want to buy a sawmill—and I think I can get it cheap. And I’ll need two wagons and two mules. I want good mules, too. And a horse and buggy for my own use.”
“A sawmill?”
“Yes, and if you’ll lend me the money, I’ll give you a half-interest in it.”
“Whatever would I do with a sawmill?”
“Make money! We can make loads of money. Or I’ll pay you interest on the loan—let’s see, what is good interest?”
“Fifty per cent is considered very fine.”
“Fifty—oh, but you are joking! Stop laughing, you devil. I’m serious.”
“That’s why I’m laughing. I wonder if anyone but me realizes what goes on in that head back of your deceptively sweet face.”
