Gone with the Wind / Унесённые ветром

”

“Of course I will,” Scarlett said automatically.

“And all the waltzes?”

“All.”

“You’re sweet! I’ll bet the other boys will be hopping mad.”

They were so filled with enthusiasm by their success that some time had passed before they realized that Scarlett was having very little to say. The atmosphere had somehow changed.

Finally, the boys bowed, shook hands and told Scarlett they’d be over at the Wilkeses’ early in the morning, waiting for her. Then they mounted their horses and went down the road at a gallop, waving their hats and yelling back to her.

They rode along in silence for a while when Brent turned to Stu.

“It looked to me like she was mighty glad to see us when we came.”

“I thought so, too.”

“And then, about a half-hour ago, she got kind of quiet, like she had a headache.”

“I noticed that. Do you suppose we said something that made her mad?”

They both thought for a minute.

“I can’t think of anything. Besides, when Scarlett gets mad, everybody knows it.

”

“But do you suppose,” Stu said, “that maybe Ashley hadn’t told her he was going to announce the engagement tomorrow night and she was mad at him for not telling her, an old friend, before he told everybody else?”

“Well, maybe. But Scarlett must have known he was going to marry Miss Melly sometime. The Wilkes and Hamiltons always marry their own cousins.”

“But I’m sorry she didn’t ask us to supper. I swear I don’t want to go home and listen to Ma talk about us being expelled.

”

Until the previous summer, Stuart had courted India Wilkes, Ashley’s sister. Both families felt that perhaps the cool India Wilkes would have a quieting eff ect on him. But Brent had not been satisfied. He liked India but he thought her plain, and he simply could not fall in love with her himself to keep Stuart company.

Then, last summer at a political speaking in a grove of oak trees at Jonesboro, they both suddenly became aware of Scarlett O’Hara.

They had known her for years, and, since their childhood, she had been a favorite playmate, for she could ride horses and climb trees almost as well as they. But now to their amazement she had become a grown-up young lady and quite the most charming one in all the world.

They noticed for the first time how her green eyes danced, how deep her dimples were when she laughed, how tiny her hands and feet and what a small waist she had.