asy1952

@@@@@"They're the newest O'Haras to come to Savannah It didn't matter at all that Matt and Katie O'Hara's double parlors held almost no furnitureThey had fireplaces for warmth, gaslit ceiling globes for light, and a broad, polished wood floor for dancingThe hours Scarlett passed in those bare rooms that Saturday were among the happiest she'd ever knownWithin the family the O 'Haras shared love and happiness as freely and unconsciously as they shared the air they breathedScarlett felt within her the growth of something she had lost too long ago to rememberShe became, like them, unaffected and spontaneous and open to carefree joyShe could shed the artifice and calculation that she'd learned to use in the battles for conquest and dominance that were part of being a belle in Southern societyShe had no need to charm or conquer; she was welcome as she was, one of the familyFor the first time in her life she was willing to relinquish the spotlight to let someone else be the center of attentionThe others were fascinating to her, primarily because they were her new-found family, but also because she'd never known anyone like them in her lifeScarlett looked at Maureen, with Brian and Daniel making music behind her, Helen and Mary Kate clapping in time with the rhythm she was setting with the bones, and for a moment it was as if the vivid redheads were the youthful Tarletons come back to lifeThe twins, tall and handsome, the girls squirming with juvenile impatience to move on to the next adventure life held for themScarlett had always envied the Tarleton girls their freeand-easy ways with their motherNow she saw the same easiness between Maureen and her childrenAnd she knew that she, too, was welcome to laugh with Maureen, to tease and be teased, to share in the bounteous affection that Jamie's wife showered on everyone around herAt that moment Scarlett's near-worship of her serene, self-contained mother shivered and suffered a tiny crack, and she began to free herself of the guilt she'd always felt because she couldn't live up to her mother's teachingsPerhaps it was all right if she wasn't a perfect lady The idea was too rich, too complicatedShe'd think about it later She didn't want to think about anything nowNot yesterday, not tomorrowThe only thing that mattered was this moment and the happiness it held, the music and singing and clapping and dancing After the formal rituals of Charleston's balls, the spontaneous home-made pleasures were intoxicatingScarlett breathed deep of the joy and laughter around her, and it giddied her