Scarlett giggled as she saw three men dragged out of the line of her charms to investigate landmarks familiar to the girls from childhood, and cuther eye sharply to see if Ashley had taken note. But he was playing with the ends of Melanie's sash and smiling up at her.Pain twisted Scarlett's heart.She felt that she could claw Melanie's ivory skin till the blood ran and take pleasure in doing it.
As her eyes wandered from Melanie, she caught the gaze of Rhett Butler, who was not mixing with the crowd but standing apart talking to John Wilkes. He had been watching her and when she looked at him he laughed outright.Scarlett had an uneasy feeling that this man who was not received was the only one present who knew what lay behind her wild gaiety and that it was affording him sardonic amusement.She could have clawed him with pleasure too.
“If I can just live through this barbecue till this afternoon,”she thought,“all the girls will go upstairs to take naps to be fresh for tonight and I'll stay downstairs and get to talk to Ashley. Surely he must have noticed how popular I am.”She soothed her heart with another hope:“Of course, he has to be attentive to Melanie because, after all, she is his cousin and she isn't popular at all, and if he didn't look out for her she'd just be a wallflower.”
She took new courage at this thought and redoubled her efforts in the direction of Charles, whose brown eyes glowed down eagerly at her. It was a wonderful day for Charles, a dream day, and he had fallen in love with Scarlett with no effort at all.Before this new emotion, Honey receded into a dim haze.Honey was a shrillvoiced sparrow and Scarlett a glearming hummingbird.She teased him and favored him and asked him questions and answered them herself, so that he appeared very clever without having to say a word.The other boys were puzzled and annoyed by her obvious interest in him, for they knew Charles was too shy to hitch two consecutive words together, and politeness was being severely strained to conceal their growing rage.Everyone was smoldering, and it would have been a positive triumph for Scarlett, except for Ashley.
When the last forkful of pork and chicken and mutton had been eaten, Scarlett hoped the time had come when India would rise and suggest that the ladies retire to the house. It was two o'clock and the sun was warm overhead, but India, wearied with the three-day preparations for the barbecue, was only too glad to remain sitting beneath the arbor, shouting remarks to a deaf oldgentleman from Fayetteville.
A lazy somnolence descended on the crowd. The negroes idled about, clearing the long tables on which the food had been laid.The laughter and talking became less animated and groups here and there fell silent.All were waiting for their hostess to signal the end of the morning's festivities.Palmetto fans were wagging more slowly, and several gentlemen were nodding from the heat and overloaded stomachs.The barbecue was over and all were content to take their ease while the sun was at its height.
In this interval between the morning party and the evening's ball, they seemed a placid, peaceful lot. Only the young men retained the restless energy which had filled the whole throng a short while before.Moving from group to group, drawling in their soft voices, they were as handsome as blooded stallions and as dangerous.The languor of midday had taken hold of the gathering, but underneath lurked tempers that could rise to killing heights in a second and flare out as quickly.Men and women, they were beautiful and wild, all a little violent under their pleasant ways and only a little tamed.
Some time dragged by while the sun grew hotter, and Scarlett and others looked again toward India. Conversation was dying out when, in the lull, everyone in the grove heard Gerald's voice raised in furious accents.Standing some little distance away from the barbecue tables, he was at the peak of an argument with John Wilkes.
“God's nightgown, man!Pray for a peaceable settlement with the Yankees?After we've fired on the rascals at Fort Sumter?Peaceable?The South should show by arms that she cannot be insulted and that she is not leaving the Union by the Union's kindness but by her own strength!”
“Oh, my God!”thought Scarlett.“He's done it!Now, we'll all sit here till midnight.”
In an instant, the somnolence had fled from the lounging throng and something electric went snapping through the air. The men sprang from benches and chairs, arms in wide gestures, voices clashing for the right to be heard above other voices.There had been no talk of politics or impending war all during the morning, because of Mr.Wilkes'request that the ladies should not be bored.But now Gerald had bawled the words“Fort Sumter,”and everyman present forgot his host's admonition.
“Of course we'll fight—”“Yankee thieves—”“We could lick them in a month—”“Why, one Southerner can lick twenty Yankees—”“Teach them a lesson they won't soon forget—”“Peaceably?They won't let us go in peace—”“No, look how Mr. Lincoln insulted our Commissioners!”“Yes, kept them hanging around for weeks—swearing he'd have Sumter evacuated!”“They want war;we'll make them sick of war—”And above all the voices, Gerald’s boomed.All Scarlett could hear was“States’rights, by God!”shouted over and over.Gerald was having an excellent time, but not his daughter.
Secession, war—these words long since had become acutely boring to Scarlett from much repetition, but now she hated the sound of them, for they meant that the men would stand there for hours haranguing one another and she would have no chance to corner Ashley. Of course there would be no war and the men all knew it.They just loved to talk and hear themselves talk.
Charles Hamilton had not risen with the others and, finding himself comparatively alone with Scarlett, he leaned closer and, with the daring born of new love, whispered a confession.