@@@@@ Rosemary began to clatter cups and saucers
@@@@@ Rosemary began to clatter cups and saucers on
the tea tray"I can't remember, do you take milk or lemon,
Scarlett?"
"What? Oh-milk, please Scarlett had no interest in teaShe was
reliving the fantasy she'd had before, of Tara brought back to life,
with its fields studded with white cotton for as far as the eye could
see and its barns full and the house just the way it had been when her
mother was aliveYes, there was some of the long-forgotten scent of
lemon oil in this room and brass polish and floor waxIt was faint,
but she was sure she could smell it, in spite of the sharp resinous
tang of the pine logs in the fireHer hand automatically accepted the
cup of tea that Rosemary offered and held it, letting it cool while she
daydreamedWhy not make Tara what it had been? If that old lady
can
run this plantation, I can run TaraWill doesn't know what Tara is,
not the real Tara, the best plantation in Clayton County
"A two-mule farm," he calls it nowNo, by all the saints, Tara's much
much more than that! I could do it, too, I'll bet! Didn't Pa say a
hundred times that I was a true O'Hara? Then I can do what he did,
make Tara into what he made itI know how to
keep
books, how to squeeze out a profit where nobody else sees the
possibilitiesWhy, practically all the places around Tara have gone
back to scrub pineI'll bet I could buy land for next to nothing!
Her mind leapt from one picture to another-rich fields, fat cattle; her
old bedroom with crisp white curtains billowing into the room on a
jasmine-scented spring breeze; riding through the woods -cleared of
underbrush-miles of chestnut-rail fence outlining her land, stretching
farther and farther into the red-earth countryside She had to set
the vision aside
Reluctantly she focused her attention on Rosemary's insistent loud
voiceRice, rice, rice! Can't Rosemary Butler ever talk about
anything but rice? What can Rhett possibly find to talk about with that
old fright Miss Ashley for so long? Scarlett shifted position again on
the setteeRhett's sister had a habit of leaning toward her listener
when she was excited about what she was saying
Rosemary had almost driven her into the corner of the long settee
She turned eagerly toward the door when it openedDamn Rhett
anyhow!
What was he laughing about with Julia Ashley? He might think it was
amusing to leave her to cool her heels for an age and a half, but she
didn't"You always were a rogue, Rhett Butler," Julia was saying, "but
I don't remember that you included impertinence in your list of
sins
"Miss Ashley, to the best of my knowledge, impertinence is a tag
attached to the behavior of servants toward their masters and young
people toward their elders
While I am, in all things, your obedient servant, you surely cannot be
suggesting that you are my elderContemporary I'll grant with
pleasure, but elder is out of the ques