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She grinned herself when the Ladies of the Court rolled slowly past in open carriagesThe leaders of Atlanta society wore masks, but stoic misery showed clearly on their facesMaybelle Merriwether's Pocahontas was sporting dejected feathers in her hair that dribbled water down her cheeks and neckWhiting were easily recognized as sodden, shivering Betsy Ross and Florence NightingaleMeade was a sneezing representation of The Good Old Days in a billow of hoop-skirted wet taffetaMerriwether was unaffected by the rainQueen Victoria held a wide black umbrella over her dry regal headHer velvet cape was unspottedWhen the ladies were past, there was a long hiatus, and the spectators began to leaveBut then there was the distant sound of "Dixie Within a minute the crowd was cheering itself mulberry leather bag hoarse, and it kept cheering until the band came before them, when silence fellIt was a small band, only two drummers and two men playing pennywhistles and one man playing a sweet, highpitched cornetBut they were dressed in gray, with gold sashes and bright brass buttonsAnd in front of them a man with one arm was holding the staff of the Confederate flag in his remaining handThe Stars and Bars was honorably tattered, and it was being paraded again through Peachtree StreetThroats were too choked with emotion to utter cheersScarlett felt tears on her cheeks, but they were not tears of defeat, they were tears of prideSherman's men had burned Atlanta, the Yankees had pillaged Georgia, but they hadn't been able to destroy the SouthShe saw tears like hers on the faces of the women, fake cartier watches and the men, in front of herEveryone had lowered umbrellas to stand bare-headed to honor the flagThey stood tall and proud, exposed to the cold rain, for a long timeThe band was followed by a column of Confederate veterans in the ragged butternut homespun uniforms they'd come home inThey marched to "Dixie" as if they were young men again, and the rain-soaked Southerners watching them found their voices to cheer and whistle and let out the chilling, rousing cry that was the Rebel YellThe cheering lasted until the veterans were out of sight Then umbrellas swung upward and people began to leaveThey'd forgot ten Rex, and Twelfth NightThe high point of the parade had come and gone, leaving them wet and chilled but exalted Scarlett heard it from dozens of smiling mouths as people passed louis vuitton white speedy her gate"There's more parade to come," she said to some of them "Can't top 'Dixie,' can it?" they repliedEven she didn't feel interested in seeing the floats, and she'd worked very hard on hersSpent a lot of money, too, on crepe paper and tinsel that the rain must have ruinedAt least she could sit down to watch now, that was somethingShe didn't want to tire herself out when tonight was the Masquerade BallTen endless minutes dragged by before the first float appearedScarlett could see why when it got near The wagon's wheels kept getting stuck in the churned red clay mud of the streetShe sighed and pulled her shawl more closely around her Looks like I'm in for a long waitIt took over an hour for the decorated wagons to make their way past her; her teeth were chattering before it was overBut at chanel earrings stud least hers was the bestThe bright crepe paper flowers around the wagon's sides were soggy, but still bright And "Kennedy's Emporium" in silver gilt tinsel shone clearly through the rain drops caught in itThe big barrels labelled "flour," sugar," cornmeal," "molasses," "coffee," "salt" were empty, she knew, so no damage was done there And the tin washtubs and washboards wouldn't rustThe iron kettles were damaged anyhow; she'd glued paper flowers over the dentsThe only dead loss was the wooden-handled toolsEven the lengths of fabric that she'd draped so artistically over a stretch of chicken wire could be salvaged for the penny bargain binIf only anybody had waited around to see her float, she was sure they'd have been impressedShe hunched her shoulders and made a face at the chanel jewelry last wagon