Gone with the Wind / Унесённые ветром

“If I can just live through this barbecue till this afternoon,” she thought, “all the girls will go upstairs to take naps to be fresh for tonight and I’ll stay downstairs and get to talk to Ashley. Surely he must have noticed how popular I am.” She had another hope: “Of course, he has to be attentive to Melanie because, after all, she is his cousin and she isn’t popular at all, and if he didn’t look out for her she’d just be a wallflower.”

Charles Hamilton was now firmly planted on her right.

He held her fan in one hand and his untouched plate of barbecue in the other and stubbornly refused to meet the eyes of Honey. Scarlett took new courage and redoubled her efforts in the direction of Charles. It was a wonderful day for Charles, a dream day, and he had fallen in love with Scarlett with no effort at all.

When the last forkful of pork and chicken and mutton had been eaten, Scarlett hoped the time had come when India would rise and suggest that the ladies retire to the house.

The barbecue was over and all were glad to have a rest while sun was at its height.

Conversation was dying out when everyone heard Gerald’s voice. Standing some little distance away from the barbecue tables, he was at the peak of an argument with John Wilkes.

“Pray for a peaceable settlement with the Yankees after we’ve fired on them at Fort Sumter? The South should show by arms that she cannot be insulted and that she is not leaving the Union by the Union’s kindness but by her own strength!”

“Oh, my God!” thought Scarlett.

“He’s done it! Now, we’ll all sit here till midnight.”

In an instant, something electric went through the air. The men sprang from benches and chairs, voices raised to be heard above other voices. There had been no talk of politics or war all during the morning, because of Mr. Wilkes’ request that the ladies should not be bored. But now Gerald had bawled the words “Fort Sumter,” and every man forgot his host’s request.

“Of course we’ll fight —”

“Yankee thieves —”

“We could lick them in a month —”

“Why, one Southerner can lick twenty Yankees —”

“Teach them a lesson they won’t soon forget —”

“No, look how Mr.

Lincoln insulted our Commissioners!”

“They want war; we’ll make them sick of war —”

And above all the voices, Gerald’s boomed. All Scarlett could hear was “States’ rights, by God!” shouted over and over.