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@@@@@But she thought about other things-whether there was any of that good pie left from dinner to have for supper her blue dress that could use a fresh collar She looked at the clock behind Sally's headShe couldn't leave for at least eight more minutesAnd Sally had seen her looking She'd have to pay attentionThe eight minutes seemed like eight more hours"All anybody talked about, Miss Eleanor, was clothesI thought I'd go crazy I was so bored!" Scarlett collapsed into the chair opposite MrsClothes had lost their fascination for her when she was reduced to the four "serviceable" drab-colored frocks Rhett's mother helped her order from the dressmakerEven the ballgowns that were being made held small interestThere were only two, for the upcoming six-week series of balls almost every nightThey were dull, too-dull colors, one blue silk and one claret-colored velvetand dull design, with hardly any trimStill, even the dullest ball meant music-and dancing-and Scarlett dearly loved to danceRhett would be back from the plantation, too, Miss Eleanor had promised herIf only she didn't have to wait so long for the Season to startThree weeks suddenly seemed unendurably boring to contemplate with nothing to do but sit around and talk to womenOh, how she wished something exciting would happen! Scarlett's wish was granted very soon, but not in the way she wantedInstead, the excitement was terrifyingIt started as malicious gossip that had people laughing all over town Mary Elizabeth Pitt, a spinster in her forties, claimed that she had awakened in the middle of the night and seen a man in her room "Just as plain as anything," she said, "with a kerchief over his face like Jesse James "If ever I heard wishful thinking," someone unkindly commented, "that's itMary Elizabeth must be twenty years older than Jesse James The newspaper had been printing a series of articles romanticizing the daring exploits of the James brothers and their ga