Butler, and take tea afterwards "Oh, Miss Julia,... 820
Butler, and take tea afterwards
"Oh, Miss Julia, can't I listen while you and Rhett talk?" Rosemary
begged"No, Rosemary, you may not And that's the end of that, I
guess, Scarlett said to herselfJulia Ashley was walking away with
Rhett obediently following behind"Come on, Scarlett, the drawing
room's through here Rosemary opened a tall door and gestured to
ScarlettThe room she entered was a surprise to ScarlettThere was
none of the coldness of its owner about it and nothing intimidating
It was very large, bigger than Minnie Wentworth's ballroomBut the
floor was covered with an old Persian rug with a background of faded
red, and the draperies at the tall windows were a warm soft rose
color
A bright fire crackled in the wide fireplace; sunlight poured through
the sparkling window panes onto the brightly polished silver tea
service, onto the gold and blue and rose velvet upholstery on chloe white broad,
comfortable settees and winged chairsAnd an enormous yellow
tabby
cat was sleeping on the hearthScarlett shook her head slightly in
wonderIt was difficult to believe that this cheerful, welcoming room
had any connection with the stiff-backed woman in the black dress she
had met outside its doorShe sat next to Rosemary on a settee"Tell
me about Miss Ashley," she said, avid with curiosity"Miss Julia's
wonderful"She runs Ashley Barony herseli;
she
says she's never had an overseer that didn't need overseeing
And she has practically as many rice fields as there were before the
WarShe could mine phosphate like Rhett, but she won't have
anything
to do with itPlantations are for planting, she says, not
for"-Rosemary's voice dropped to a shocked, pleased whisper-" 'raping
the land to get what's underneath She keeps it all the way it was
There's sugar cane and a press to make her own molasses, and a
blacksmith to gucci fashion shoe the mules and make wheels for the carts, and a
cooper to make barrels for the rice and molasses, and a carpenter for
fixing things, a tanner to make harnessShe takes her rice into town
for milling and she buys flour and coffee and tea, but everything else
comes from the placeShe's got cows and sheep and fowl and pigs
and a
dairy room and spring house and smoke house and storerooms full of
canned vegetables and shelled corn and preserved fruit from the
summer
cropsShe makes her own wine, tooRhett claims she's even got a
still out in the pine woods she gets her turpentine from
"Does she still have slaves?"
Scarlett's words were sharply sarcasticThe days of the great
plantations were over and there was no bringing them back"Oh,
Scarlett, you sound just like Rhett sometimesI'd like to shake both
of youMiss Julia pays wages just like everybody elseBut she makes
the plantation earn enough to miu miu black handbag pay themI'm going to do the same
thing
at the Landing if I ever get the chanceI think it's horrible that
Rhett won't even try Rosemary began to clatter cups and saucers on
the tea tray"I can't remember, do you take milk or lemon,
Scarlett?"
"What? Oh-milk, please Scarlett had no interest in teaShe was
reliving the fantasy she'd had before, of Tara brought back to life,
with its fields studded with white cotton for as far as the eye could
see and its barns full and the house just the way it had been when her
mother was aliveYes, there was some of the long-forgotten scent of
lemon oil in this room and brass polish and floor waxIt was faint,
but she was sure she could smell it, in spite of the sharp resinous
tang of the pine logs in the fireHer hand automatically accepted the
cup of tea that Rosemary offered and held it, letting it cool while she
daydreamedWhy not make Tara what it had been? If that tiffany's bean necklace old lady
can
run this plantation, I can run TaraWill doesn't know what Tara is,
not the real Tara, the best plantation in Clayton County
"A two-mule farm," he calls it nowNo, by all the saints, Tara's much
much more than that! I could do it, too, I'll bet! Didn't Pa say a
hundred times that I was a true O'Hara? Then I can do what he did,
make Tara into what he made itI know how to
keep
books, how to squeeze out a profit where nobody else sees the
possibilitiesWhy, practically all the places around Tara have gone
back to scrub pineI'll bet I could buy land for next to nothing!
Her mind leapt from one picture to another-rich fields, fat cattle; her
old bedroom with crisp white curtains billowing into the room on a
jasmine-scented spring breeze; riding through the woods -cleared of
underbrush-miles of chestnut-rail fence outlining her land, stretching
farther and farther into the red-earth omega seamaster titanium watch countrysi
