“And how you would love to have money enough to bribe officials,so you could do likewise!”
“The very idea—”She began to ruffle.
“But perhaps you will make enough money to get into bribery on a large scale some day.Maybe you'll get rich off those convicts you leased.”
“Oh,”she said,a little disconcerted,“how did you find out about my gang so soon?”
“I arrived last night and spent the evening in the Girl of the Period Saloon,where one hears all the news of the town.It's a clearing house for gossip.Better than a ladies'sewing circle.Everyone told me that you'd leased a gang and put that little plug-ugly,Gallegher,in charge to work them to death.”
“That's a lie,”she said angrily.“He won't work them to death.I'll see to that.”
“Will you?”
“Of course I will!How can you even insinuate such things?”
“Oh,I do beg your pardon,Mrs.Kennedy!I know your motives are always above reproach.However,Johnnie Gallegher is a cold little bully if I ever saw one.Better watch him or you'll be having trouble when the inspector comes around.”
“You tend to your business and I'll tend to mine,”she said indignantly.“And I don't want to talk about convicts any more.Everybody's been hateful about them.My gang is my own business—And you haven't told me yet what you do in New Orleans.You go there so often that everybody says—”She paused.She had not intended to say so much.
“What do they say?”
“Well—that you have a sweetheart there.That you are going to get married.Are you,Rhett?”
She had been curious about this for so long that she could not refrain from asking the point-blank question.A queer little pang of jealousy jabbed at her at the thought of Rhett getting married,although why that should be she did not know.
His bland eyes grew suddenly alert and he caught her gaze and held it until a little blush crept up into her cheeks.
“Would it matter much to you?”
“Well,I should hate to lose your friendship,”she said primly and,with an attempt at disinterestedness,bent down to pull the blanket closer about Ella Lorena's head.
He laughed suddenly,shortly,and said:“Look at me,Scarlett.”
She looked up unwillingly,her blush deepening.
“You can tell your curious friends that when I marry it will be because I couldn't get the woman I wanted in any other way.And I've never yet wanted a woman bad enough to marry her.”
Now she was indeed confused and embarrassed,for she remembered the night on this very porch during the siege when he had said:“I am not a marrying man”and casually suggested that she become his mistress—remembered,too,the terrible day when he was in jail and was shamed by the memory.A slow malicious smile went over his face as he read her eyes.
“But I will satisfy your vulgar curiosity since you ask such pointed questions.It isn't a sweetheart that takes me to New Orleans.It's a child,a little boy.”
“A little boy!”The shock of this unexpected information wiped out her confusion.
“Yes,he is my legal ward and I am responsible for him.He's in school in New Orleans.I go there frequently to see him.”
“And take him presents?”So,she thought,that's how he always knows what kind of presents Wade likes!
“Yes,”he said shortly,unwillingly.
“Well,I never!Is he handsome?”
“Too handsome for his own good.”
“Is he a nice little boy?”
“No.He's a perfect hellion.I wish he had never been born.Boys are troublesome creatures.Is there anything else you'd like to know?”
He looked suddenly angry and his brow was dark,as though he already regretted speaking of the matter at all.
“Well,not if you don't want to tell me any more,”she said loftily,though she was burning for further information.“But I just can't see you in the role of a guardian,”and she laughed,hoping to disconcert him.
“No,I don't suppose you can.Your vision is pretty limited.”
He said no more and smoked his cigar in silence for a while.She cast about for some remark as rude as his but could think of none.
“I would appreciate it if you'd say nothing of this to anyone,”he said finally.“Though I suppose that asking a woman to keep her mouth shut is asking the impossible.”
“I can keep a secret,”she said with injured dignity.
“Can you?It's nice to learn unsuspected things about friends.Now,stop pouting,Scarlett.I'm sorry I was rude but you deserved it for prying.Give me a smile and let's be pleasant for a minute or two before I take up an unpleasant subject.”
“Oh,dear!”she thought.“Now,he's going to talk about Ashley and the mill!”and she hastened to smile and show her dimple to divert him.“Where else did you go,Rhett?You haven't been in New Orleans all this time,have you?”
“No,for the last month I've been in Charleston.My father died.”
“Oh,I'm sorry.”
“Don't be.I'm sure he wasn't sorry to die,and I'm sure I'm not sorry he's dead.”
“Rhett,what a dreadful thing to say!”
“It would be much more dreadful if I pretended to be sorry,when I wasn't,wouldn't it?There was never any love lost between us.I cannot remember when the old gentleman did not disapprove of me.I was too much like his own father and he disapproved heartily of his father.And as I grew older his disapproval of me became downright dislike,which,I admit,I did little to change.All the things Father wanted me to do and be were such boring things.And finally he threw me out into the world without a cent and no training whatsoever to be anything but a Charleston gentleman,a good pistol shot and an excellent poker player.And he seemed to take it as a personal affront that I did not starve but put my poker playing to excellent advantage and supported myself royally by gambling.He was so affronted at a Butler becoming a gambler that when I came home for the first time,he forbade my mother to see me.And all during the war when I was blockading out of Charleston,Mother had to lie and slip off to see me.Naturally that didn't increase my love for him.”
“Oh,I didn't know all that!”