Archie was a silent man,never speaking unless spoken to and usually answering with grunts.Every morning he came from Melanie's cellar and sat on the front steps of Pitty's house,chewing and spitting until Scarlett came out and Peter brought the buggy from the stable.Uncle Peter feared him only a little less than the devil or the Ku Klux and even Mammy walked silently and timorously around him.He hated negroes and they knew it and feared him.He reinforced his pistol and knife with another pistol,and his fame spread far among the black population.He never once had to draw a pistol or even lay his hand on his belt.The moral effect was sufficient.No negro dared even laugh while Archie was in hearing.
Once Scarlett asked him curiously why he hated negroes and was surprised when he answered,for generally all questions were answered by “I reckon that's my bizness.”
“I hates them,like all mountain folks hates them.We never liked them and we never owned none.It was them niggers that started the war.I hates them for that,too.”
“But you fought in the war.”
“I reckon that's a man's privilege.I hates Yankees too,more'n I hates niggers.Most as much as I hates talkative women.”
It was such outspoken rudeness as this that threw Scarlett into silent furies and made her long to be rid of him.But how could she do without him?In what other way could she obtain such freedom?He was rude and dirty and,occasionally,very odorous but he served his purpose.He drove her to and from the mills and on her round of customers,spitting and staring off into space while she talked and gave orders.If she climbed down from the buggy,he climbed after her and dogged her footsteps.When she was among rough laborers,negroes or Yankee soldiers,he was seldom more than a pace from her elbow.
Soon Atlanta became accustomed to seeing Scarlett and her bodyguard and,from being accustomed,the ladies grew to envy her her freedom of movement.Since the Ku Klux lynching,the ladies had been practically immured,not even going to town to shop unless there were half a dozen in their group.Naturally social minded,they became restless and,putting their pride in their pockets,they began to beg the loan of Archie from Scarlett.And whenever she did not need him,she was gracious enough to spare him for the use of other ladies.
Soon Archie became an Atlanta institution and the ladies competed for his free time.There was seldom a morning when a child or a negro servant did not arrive at breakfast time with a note saying:“If you aren't using Archie this afternoon,do let me have him.I want to drive to the cemetery with flowers.”“I must go to the milliners.”“I should like Archie to drive Aunt Nelly for an airing.”“I must go calling on Peters Street and Grandpa is not feeling well enough to take me.Could Archie—”
He drove them all,maids,matrons and widows,and toward all he evidenced the same uncompromising contempt.It was obvious that he did not like women,Melanie excepted,any better than he liked negroes and Yankees.Shocked at first by his rudeness,the ladies finally became accustomed to him and,as he was so silent,except for intermittent explosions of tobacco juice,they took him as much for granted as the horses he drove and forgot his very existence.In fact,Mrs.Merriwether related to Mrs.Meade the complete details of her niece's confinement before she even remembered Archie's presence on the front seat of the carriage.
At no other time than this could such a situation have been possible.Before the war,he would not have been permitted even in the ladies'kitchens.They would have handed him food through the back door and sent him about his business.But now they welcomed his reassuring presence.Rude,illiterate,dirty,he was a bulwark between the ladies and the terrors of Reconstruction.He was neither friend nor servant.He was a hired bodyguard,protecting the women while their men worked by day or were absent from home at night.
It seemed to Scarlett that after Archie came to work for her Frank was away at night very frequently.He said the books at the store had to be balanced and business was brisk enough now to give him little time to attend to this in working hours.And there were sick friends with whom he had to sit.Then there was the organization of Democrats who foregathered every Wednesday night to devise ways of regaining the ballot and Frank never missed a meeting.Scarlett thought this organization did little else except argue the merits of General John B.Gordon over every other general,except General Lee,and refight the war.Certainly she could observe no progress in the direction of the recovery of the ballot.But Frank evidently enjoyed the meetings for he stayed out until all hours on those nights.
Ashley also sat up with the sick and he,too,attended the Democratic meetings and he was usually away on the same nights as Frank.On these nights,Archie escorted Pitty,Scarlett,Wade and little Ella through the back yard to Melanie's house and the two families spent the evenings together.The ladies sewed while Archie lay full length on the parlor sofa snoring,his gray whiskers fluttering at each rumble.No one had invited him to dispose himself on the sofa and as it was the finest piece of furniture in the house,the ladies secretly moaned every time he lay down on it,planting his boot on the pretty upholstery.But none of them had the courage to remonstrate with him.Especially after he remarked that it was lucky he went to sleep easy,for otherwise the sound of women clattering like a flock of guinea hens would certainly drive him crazy.