@@@@@She'd have this final fling of freedom and 394
@@@@@She'd have this final fling of freedom and then she'd go to
Charleston, put on her drab clothes and company manners, and be a
lady
for the rest of her lifeAt least now when Miss Eleanor and everybody
else in Charleston talked about their trips to Europe before the War,
she'd not feel so left outShe wouldn't say she'd disliked it,
eitherLadies didn't say things like thatUnconsciously, Scarlett
sighed"Ach, Scarlett darling, it can't be as bad as all that," Colum
said"Look at the bright sideYou're cleaning out their deep
pockets at the card tableShe was winning a fortune-some evenings
as
much as thirty dollarsWait till she told Rhett! How he'd laugh
He'd been a gambler on Mississippi riverboats for a while, after all
Come to think of it, it was a good thing, really, that there was still
a week at seaShe wouldn't have to touch a penny of Rhett's money
Scarlett's attitude toward money was a complex mixture of miserliness
and generosityIt had been her measure of safety for so many years
that she guarded every penny of her hard-earned fortune with angry
suspicion of anyone who made any real or imagined demands for a
dollar
of itAnd yet she accepted the responsibility to support her aunts
and Melanie's family without questionShe had taken care of them
even
when she didn't know where she'd find the means to take care of
herselfIf some unforeseen calamity befell, she would continue to
take care of them, even if it meant that she had to go hungryShe
didn't think about it; it was simply the way things wereHer feelings
about Rhett's money were equally inconsistentAs his wife she spent
profligately on the Peachtree Street house, with its prodigious
expenses, and on her wardrobe and luxuriesBut the half million he
had given her was differentShe intended to give it back
to him intact when they were once again truly man and wifeHe had
offered it as payment for separation, and she could not accept it
because she would not accept separationIt bothered her that she'd
had to take some of it out of the bank vaults to bring on the
