(Tara is the beautiful homeland of Scarlett, who is now talking with the twins, Brent and Stew, at the door step.)
BRENT: What do we care if we were expelled from college, Scarlett. The war is going to start any day now so we would have left college anyhow.
STEW: Oh, isn't it exciting, Scarlett? You know those poor Yankees actually want a war? BRENT: We'll show'em.
SCARLETT: Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war, war. This war talk is spoiling all the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I could scream. Besides, there isn't going to be any war.
BRENT: Not going to be any war?
STEW: Ah, buddy, of course there's going to be a war.
SCARLETT: If either of you boys says "war" just once again, I'll go in the house and slam the door. BRENT: But Scarlett honey..
STEW: Don't you want us to have a war? BRENT: Wait a minute, Scarlett...
STEW: We'll talk about this... BRENT: No please, we'll do anything you say...
SCARLETT: Well-but remember I warned you. BRENT: I've got an idea. We'll talk about the barbecue the Wilkes are giving over at Twelve Oaks tomorrow.
STEW: That's a good idea. You're eating barbecue with us, aren't you, Scarlett?
SCARLETT: Well, I hadn't thought about that yet, I'll...I'll think about that tomorrow.
STEW: And we want all your waltzes, there's first Brent, then me, then Brent, then me again, then Saul. Promise?
SCARLETT: I' just love to.
STEW: Yahoo!
SCARLETT: If only ..if only I didn't have every one of them taken already.
BRENT: Honey, you can't do that to us.
STEW: How about if we tell you a secret?
SCARLETT: Secret? Who by?
BRENT: Well, you know Miss Melanie Hamilton, from Atlanta?
STEW: Ashley Wilkes' cousin? Well she's visiting the Wilkes at Twelve Oaks.
SCARLETT: Melanie Hamilton, that goody-goody. Who wants no secret about her. BRENT: Well, anyway we heard...
STEW: That is, they say.. BRENT: Ashley Wilkes is going to marry her.
STEW: You know the Wilkes always marry their cousins. BRENT: Now do we get those waltzes?
SCARLETT: Of course. BRENT: Yahoo!
SCARLETT: It can't be true...Ashley loves me.
STEW: Scarlett!
(Scarlett couldn't accept the fact of Ashley's marriage, she rushes to
find her father. Mr. O'Hara is just back from a ride.)
Mr. O'HARA: (To his horse) There's none in the county can touch
you, and none in the state.
SCARLETT: Paw? How proud of yourself you are!
Mr. O'HARA: Well, it is Scarlett O'Hara. So, you've been spying on
me. And like your sister Sue Ellen, you'll be telling your mother on
me, that I was jumping again.
SCARLETT: Oh, Paw, you know I'm no 'tattle like Sue Ellen. But it
does seem to me that after you broke your knee last year jumping that
same fence......
Mr. O'HARA: I'll not have me own daughter telling me what I shall
jump and not jump. It's my own neck, so it is.
SCARLETT: All right Paw, you jump what you please. How are they
all over at Twelve Oaks?
Mr. O'HARA: The Wilkes? Oh, what you expect, with the barbecue
tomorrow and talking, nothing but war...
SCARLETT: Oh bother the war....was there, was there anyone else
there?
Mr. O'HARA: Oh, their cousin Melanie Hamilton from Atlanta. And
her brother Charles.
SCARLETT: Melanie Hamilton. She's a pale-faced mealy-mouthed
ninny and I hate her.
Mr. O'HARA: Ashley Wilkes doesn't think so.
SCARLETT: Ashley Wilkes couldn't like anyone like her.
Mr. O'HARA: What's your interest in Ashley and Miss Melanie?
SCARLETT: It's...it's nothing. Let's go into the house, Paw.
Mr. O'HARA: Has he been trifling with you? Has he asked
you to marry him?
SCARLETT No.
Mr. O'HARA: No, nor will he. I have it in strictest
confidence from John Wilkes this afternoon, Ashley is
going to marry Miss Melanie. It'll be announced tomorrow
night at the ball.
SCARLETT: I don't believe it!
Mr. O'HARA: Here, here what are you after? Scarlett!
What are you about? Have you been making a spectacle
of yourself running about after a man who's not in love
with you? When you might have any of the bucks in the county?
SCARLETT: I haven't been running after him, it's...it's
just a surprise that's all.
Mr. O'HARA: Now, don't be jerking your chin at me. If
Ashley wanted to marry you, it would be with misgivings,
I'd say yes. I want my girl to be happy. You'd not be happy with him.
SCARLETT: I would, I would.
Mr. O'HARA: What difference does it make whom you
marry? So long as he's a Southerner and thinks like you.
And when I'm gone, I leave Tara to you.
SCARLETT: I don't want Tara, plantations don't mean anything when...
Mr. O'HARA: Do you mean to toll me Katie Scarlett O'Hara
that Tara, that land doesn't mean anything to you? Why,
land is the only thing in the world worth working for.
Worth fighting for, worth dying for. Because it's the only thing that lasts.
SCARLETT: Oh, Paw, you talk like an Irishman.
Mr. O'HARA: It's proud I am that I'm Irish. And don't you
be forgetting, Missy, that you're half-Irish too. And to
anyone with a drop of Irish blood in them, why the land
they live on is like their mother. Oh, but there, there, now,
you're just a child. It'll come to you, this love of the land.
There's no getting away from it if you're Irish.
(Next day, the O’Hara’s drive to Twelve Oaks for the barbeque there.)
Mr. O'HARA:: Well, John Wilkes. It's a grand day you'll
be having for the barbecue.
JOHN WILKES: So it seems, Gerald. Why isn't Mrs. 0'Hara with you?
Mr. O'HARA: She's after settling accounts with the
overseer, but she'll be along for the ball tonight.
INDIA: Welcome to Twelve Oaks, Mr. O'Hara.
Mr. O'HARA: : Thank you kindly, India. Your daughter is
getting prettier everyday, John.
JOHN WILKES: Oh, India, here are the O'Hara girls, we must GREet them.
INDIA: Can't stand that Scarlett. If you'd see the way
she throws herself at Ashley.
JOHN WILKES: Now, now, that's your brother's business.
You must remember your duties as hostess. Good morning,
girls! You look lovely. Good morning, Scarlett.
SCARLETT: India Wilkes. What a lovely dress. I just can't
take my eyes off it.
(Scarlett enters the hall with her family.)
MAN1: Good morning, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Morning.
MAN2: Look mighty fine this morning, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Thank you.
MANS: Morning Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Good Morning.
MAN4: Pleasure to see you, Miss Scarlett.
MANS: Howdy, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Ashley!
ASHLEY: Scarlett! My dear!
SCARLETT: I've been looking for you everywhere. I've
got something I must tell you. Can't we go some place where it's quiet?
ASHLEY: Yes I'd like to, but... I've something to tell you,
too. Something I...I hope you'll be glad to hear. Now come
and say hello to my cousin, Melanie Wilkes.
SCARLETT: Oh, do we have to?
ASHLEY: She's been looking forward to seeing you again.
Melanie! Here's Scarlett.
MELANIE: Scarlett. I'm so glad to see you again.
SCARLETT: Melanie Hamilton, what a surprise to run
into you here. I hope you're going to stay with us a few
days at least.
MELANIE: I hope I shall stay long enough for us to become
real friends, Scarlett. I do so want us to be.
ASHLEY: We'll keep her here, won't we, Scarlett?
SCARLETT: Oh, we'll just have to make the biggest fuss
over her, won't we, Ashley? And if there's anybody who
knows how to give a girl a good time, it's Ashley. Though
I expect our good times must seem terribly silly to you because you're so serious.
MELANIE: Oh, Scarlett. You have so much life. I've always
admired you so, I wish I could be more like you.
SCARLETT: You mustn't flatter me, Melanie, and say
things you don't mean.
ASHLEY: Nobody could accuse Melanie of being insincere.
Could they, my dear?
SCARLETT: Oh, well then, she's not like you. Is she,
Ashley? Ashley never means a word he says to any girl.
Oh, why Charles Hamilton, you handsome old thing, you.
CHARLES HAMILTON: But, oh. Miss O'Hara...
SCARLETT: Do you think that was kind to bring your
good-looking brother down here just to break my poor,
simple country-girl's heart?
(India and Sue Ellen are watching Scarlett in distance)
ELLEN: Look at Scarlett, she's never even noticed Charles
before, now just because he's your beau, she's after him
like a ^hornet!
SCARLETT: Charles Hamilton, I want to eat barbecue
with you. And mind you don't go ^philandering with any
other girl because I'm mighty jealous.
CHARLES HAMILTON: I won't, Miss O'Hara. I couldn't!
SCARLETT: I do declare, Frank Kelly, you don't look dashing with
that new set of whiskers.
FRANK: Oh, thank you, thank you, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: You know Charles Hamilton and Ray Kelvert asked me
to eat barbecue with them, but I told them I couldn't because I'd
promised you. INDIA: You needn't be so amused, look at her. She's after your beau now.
FRANK: Oh, that's mighty flattering of you, Miss Scarlett. I'll see
what I can do, Miss Scarlett.
KATHLEEN: What's your sister so mad about, Scarlett, you sparking
her beau?
SCARLETT: As if I couldn't get a better beau than that old maid in
britches. Brent and Stew, do talk, you handsome old thing, you...oh,
no, you're not, I don't mean to say that I'm mad at you. BRENT: Why
Scarlett honey...
SCARLETT: You haven't been near me all day and I wore this old
dress just because I thought you liked it. I was counting on eating
barbecue with you two. BRENT: Well, you are, Scarlett...
STEW: Of course you are, honey.
SCARLETT: Oh, I never can make up my mind which of you two's
handsomer. I was awake all last night trying to figure it out. Kathleen, who's that?
KATHLEEN: Who?
SCARLETT: That man looking at us and smiling. A nasty dog.
KATHLEEN: My dear, don't you know? That's Rhett
Butler. He's from Charleston. He has the most terrible reputation.
SCARLETT: He looks as if, as if he knows what I looked like without my shimmy.
KATHLEEN: How? But my dear, he isn't received. He's
had to spend most of his time up North because his folks
in Charleston won't even speak to him. He was expelled
from West Point, he's so fast. And then there's that
business about that girl he wouldn't marry...
SCARLETT: Tell, tell...
KATHLEEN: Well, he took her out in a buggy riding in
the late afternoon without a chaperone and then, and then
he refused to marry her!
SCARLETT: (whisper)...
KATHLEEN: No, but she was ruined just the same.
(Ashley and Melanie, on the balcony open to the garden.)
MELANIE: Ashley..
ASHLEY: Happy?
MELANIE: So happy
ASHLEY: You seem to belong here. As if it had all been
imagined for you.
MELANIE: I like to feel that I belong to the things you love.
ASHLEY: You love Twelve Oaks as I do.
MELANIE: Yes, Ashley. I love it as, as more than a house.
It's a whole world that wants only to be graceful and beautiful.
ASHLEY: And so unaware that it may not last, forever.
MELANIE: You're afraid of what may happen when the war conies,
aren't you? Well, we don't have to be afraid. For us. No war can come
into our world Ashley. Whatever comes, I'll love you, just as I do now. Until I die.
Chapter 2
Scarlett Meeting
Butler
(Noon time, the gentlemen are gathering in the down stair hall,
talking about the war.)
Mr. O'HARA: We've borne enough insults from the "meddling
Yankees. It's time we made them understand we keep our slaves with
or without their approval. Who's to stop them right from the state of
Georgia to ^secede from the Union.
MAN: That's right.
Mr. O'HARA: The South must assert ourselves by force of arms.
After we fired on the Yankee rascals at Fort Sumter, we've got to fight.
There's no other way.
MAN1: Fight, that's right, fight!
MAN2: Let the
Yankee's be the ones to ask for peace.
Mr. O'HARA: The situation is very simple. The Yankees can't fight
and we can. CHORUS: You're right!
MANS: That's what I'll think!
They'll just turn and run every time.
MAN1: One Southerner can lick twenty Yankees.
MAN2: We'll finish them in one battle. Gentlemen can always fight
better than rattle. MANS: Yes, gentlemen always fight better than rattle.
Mr. O'HARA: And what does the captain of our troop say?
ASHLEY: Well, gentlemen...if Georgia fights, I go with her. But like
my father I hope that the Yankees let us leave the Union in peace.
MAN1: But Ashley... MAN2: Ashley, they've insulted us.
MANS: You can't mean that you don't want war.
ASHLEY: Most of the miseries of the world were caused by wars.
And when the wars were over, no one ever knew what they were about.
Mr. O'HARA: Now gentlemen, Mr. Butler has been up North I hear.
Don't you agree with us, Mr. Butler?
RHETT BUTLER : I think it's hard winning a war with words, gentlemen.
CHARLES: What do you mean, sir?
RHETT: I mean, Mr. Hamilton, there's not a cannon factory in the whole South.
MAN: What difference does that make, sir, to a gentleman?
RHETT: I'm afraid it's going to make a great deal of difference to a
great many gentlemen, sir.
CHARLES: Are you hinting, Mr. Butler,
that the Yankees can lick us?
RHETT: No, I'm not hinting. I'm saying very plainly that the Yankees
are better equipped than we. They've got
factories, shipyards, coalmines... and a fleet to bottle up
our harbors and starve us to death. All we've got is cotton,
and slaves and ...arrogance.
MAN: That's treacherous!
CHARLES: I refuse to listen to any renegade talk!
RHETT: Well, I'm sorry if the truth offends you.
CHARLES: Apologies aren't enough sir. I hear you were
turned out of West Point Mr. Rhett Butler. And that you
aren't received in an decent family in Charleston. Not even your own.
RHETT: I apologize again for all my shortcomings. Mr.
Wilkes, Perhaps you won't mind if I walk about and look
over your place. I seem to be spoiling everybody's brandy
and cigars and...dreams of victory.
(Rhett Butler leaves the hall.)
MAN: Well, that's just about what you could expect from somebody like Rhett Butler.
Mr. O'HARA: You did everything but call him out.
CHARLES: He refused to fight.
ASHLEY: Not quite that Charles. He just refused to take advantage of you.
CHARLES: Take advantage of me?
ASHLEY: Yes, he's one of the best shots the country, he's
proved a number of times, against steadier hands and cooler heads than yours.
CHARLES: Well, I'll show him.
ASHLEY: No, no no, please, don't go tweaking his nose
anymore. You may be needed for more important fighting, Charles.
Now if you'll excuse me, Mr. Butler's our guest... I think I'll just show
him around. (Ashley leaves the hall with intention of walking Butler
around the house. But before he can do this, Scarlett calls him into a detached room.)
SCARLETT: Ashley!
ASHLEY: Scarlett...who are you hiding from here?...What are you
up to? Why aren't you upstairs resting with the other girls? What is this, Scarlett? A secret?
SCARLETT: Well, Ashley, Ashley...! I love you.
ASHLEY: Scarlett...
SCARLETT: I love you, I do.
ASHLEY: Well, isn't it enough that you gathered every other man's heart today? You always had mine. You cut your teeth on it.
SCARLETT: Oh, don't tease me now. Have I your heart my darling? I love you, I love you...
ASHLEY: You mustn't say such things. You'll hate me for hearing them.
SCARLETT: Oh, I could never hate you and, and I know you must care about me. Oh, you do care, don't you?
ASHLEY: Yes, I care. Oh can't we go away and forget we ever said these things?
SCARLETT: But how can we do that? Don't you, don't you want to marry me?
ASHLEY: I'm going to marry Melanie.
SCARLETT: But you can't, not if you care for me.
ASHLEY: Oh my dear, why must you make me say things that will hurt you? How can I make you understand? You're so young and I'm thinking, you don't know what marriage means.
SCARLETT: I know I love you and I want to be your wife. You don't love Melanie.
ASHLEY: She's like me, Scarlett. She's part of my blood, we understand each other.
SCARLETT: But you love me!
ASHLEY: How could I help loving you? You have all the passion for life that I lack. But that kind of love isn't enough to make a successful marriage for two people who are as different as we are.
SCARLETT: Why don't you say it, you coward? You're afraid to marry me. You'd rather live with that silly little fool who can't open her mouth except to say "yes", "no", and raise a houseful of mealy-mouthed brats just like her!
ASHLEY: You mustn't say things like that about Melanie.
SCARLETT: Who are you to tell me I mustn't? You led me on, you made me believe you wanted to marry me!
ASHLEY: Now Scarlett, be fair. I never at any time...
SCARLETT: You did, it's true, you did! I'll hate you till I die! I can't think of anything bad enough to call you... (Ashley leaves. Scarlett throws a vase to the wall in anger. The crashing of the vase startles
Rhett Butler. He rises up from the couch in a dark corner of the room.)
RHETT: Has the war started?
SCARLETT: Sir, you...you should have made your presence known.
RHETT: In the middle of that beautiful love scene? That wouldn't have been very tactful, would it? But don't worry. Your secret is safe with me.
SCARLETT: Sir, you are no gentleman.
RHETT: And you miss are no lady. Don't think that I hold that against you. Ladies have never held any charm for me.
SCARLETT: First you take a low, common advantage of me, then you insult me!
RHETT: I meant it as a compliment. And I hope to see more of you when you're free of the spell of the elegant Mr. Wilkes. He doesn't strike me as half good enough for a girl of your...what was it...your passion for living?
SCARLETT How dare you! You aren't fit to wipe his boot!
RHETT: And you were going to hate him for the rest of your life.
Chapter 3
Scarlett Marrying
Charles
(Outside, there's chaos. Gentlemen, including Ashley, are
leaving for the call of war.)
CHARLES: Miss 0' Hara! Miss 0' Hara, isn't it thrilling?
Mr. Lincoln has called the soldiers, volunteers to fight
against us.
SCARLETT: Oh, fiddle-dee-dee. Don't you men ever think
about anything important?
CHARLES: But it's war, Miss O'Hara! And everybody's
going off to enlist, they're going right away. I'm going,
too!
SCARLETT: Everybody?
CHARLES: Oh, Miss O'Hara, will you be sorry? To see us
go, I mean.
SCARLETT: I'll cry to my pillow every night.
CHARLES: Oh, Miss O'Hara, I've told you I loved you. I
think you're the most beautiful girl in the world. And the
sweetest, the dearest. I know that I couldn't hope that
you could love me, so "clumsy and stupid, not nearly good
enough for you. But if you could, if you could think of
marrying me, I'd do anything in the world for you, just
anything, I promise!
SCARLETT: Oh, what did you say?
CHARLES: Miss O'Hara, I said, would you marry me?
SCARLETT: Yes, Mr. Hamilton, I will.
CHARLES: You will, you'll marry me? You'll wait for me?
SCARLETT: Well, I don't think I'd want to wait.
CHARLES: You mean you'll marry me before I go? Oh,
Miss O'Hara...Scarlett...when may I speak to your father?
SCARLETT: The sooner, the better.
CHARLES: I'll go now, I can't wait. Will you excuse me?
Dear?
(The day after Melanie and Ashley's wedding, Scarlett
marries Charles Hamilton.)
MELANIE: Scarlett. I thought of you at our wedding
yesterday and I hope that yours would be as beautiful.
And it was.
SCARLETT: Was it?
MELANIE: Now we're really and truly sisters. Charles.
CHARLES: Don't cry darling. The war will be over in a
few weeks and I'll be coming back to you.
Chapter 4 Scarlett's
Second Contact with
Butler
( Charles died at the front, but Scarlett is not at all sad. She goes to
the donation party with Melanie, wearing black.)
DR. MEADE: Ladies and gentlemen. I have important news,
glorious news. Another triumph for our magnificent men in arms.
General Lee has completely whipped the enemy and swept the
Yankee army northward from Virginia! And now, a happy surprise
for all of us! We have with us tonight that most daring of all
blockade runners, whose fleet "schooners slipping past the Yankee
guns have brought us here the very woolens and laces we wear
tonight. I refer, ladies and gentlemen, to that will oath wisp of the
bounding main, none other than our friend from Charleston, Captain
Rhett Butler!
MELANIE: Captain Butler, such a pleasure to see you again. I met
you last at my husband's home.
RHETT: That's kind of you to remember, Mrs. Wilkes.
MELANIE: Did you meet Captain Butler at Twelve Oaks, Scarlett?
SCARLETT: Yes I, I think so.
RHETT: Only for a moment, Mrs. Hamilton, it was in the library.
You, uh, had broken something.
SCARLETT: Yes, Captain Butler, I remember you. MAN: Ladies,
the Confederacy asks for your jewelry on behalf of our noble cause.
SCARLETT: We aren't wearing any, we're in mourning.
RHETT: Wait. On behalf of Mrs. Wilkes and Mrs. Hamilton,.
MAN: Thank you, Captain Butler.
MELANIE: Just a moment, please. MAN: But, it's your wedding ring,
ma'am.
MELANIE: It may help my husband more, off my finger.
MAN: Thank you.
RHETT: It was a very beautiful thing to do, Mrs. Wilkes.
SCARLETT: Here, you can have mine, too. For the cause.
RHETT: And you Mrs. Hamilton. I know just how much that means
to you.
MAN: Melanie.-.I need your approval as a member of the committee
with something we want to do, that's rather shocking. Will you
excuse us, please?
RHETT: I'll say one thing. The war makes the most peculiar widows.
SCARLETT: I wish you'd go away. If you'd had any raising, you'd
know I never want to see you again.
RHETT: Now, why be silly? You've no reason for hating me. I'll
carry your guilty secret to my grave.
SCARLETT: Oh, I guess I'd be very unpatriotic to hate one of the
great heroes of the war. I do declare, I was surprised that you'd turned
out to be such a noble character.
RHETT: I can't bear to take advantage of your little girl's ideas, Miss
O'Hara. I am neither noble nor heroic.
SCARLETT: But you are a blockade runner.
RHETT: For profit. And profit only
SCARLETT: Are you trying to tell me you don't believe in the
cause?
RHETT: I believe in Rhett Butler. He's the only cause I know. The
rest doesn't mean much to me.
DR. MEADE: And now, ladies and gentlemen. I have a startling
surprise for the benefit of the hospital. Gentlemen, if you wish to lead
the opening real with the lady of your choice, you must bid for her.
WOMAN: Caroline Meade, how could you permit your husband to
conduct this, this, slave auction?
CAROLINE MEADE: Darling Merry Weather, how dare you
criticize me? Melanie Wilkes told the doctor that if it's for the benefit
of the cause, it's quite all right.
WOMAN: She did?
AUNT PITTY: Oh dear, oh dear, where are my smelling salts? I
think I shall faint. CAROLINE MEADE: Don't you dare faint, Lilly
Beth
Hamilton. If Melanie says it's all right, it is all right.
DR. MEADE: Come gentlemen, do I hear your bids? Make your
offers! Don't be ^bashful, gentlemen! MAN1: Twenty dollars! Twenty
dollars for Miss May belle Merryweather.
MAN2: Twenty five dollars for Miss Fanny Ossing!
DR. MEADE: Only twenty five dollars to give.
RHETT: One hundred and fifty dollars in gold.
DR. MEADE: For what lady, sir?
RHETT: For Mrs. Charles Hamilton.
DR. MEADE: For whom, sir?
RHETT: Mrs. Charles Hamilton.
DR. MEADE: Mrs. Hamilton is in mourning, Captain Butler. But I'm
sure any of our Atlanta belles would be proud to.
RHETT: But talk to me. I said Mrs. Charles Hamilton.
DR. MEADE: She will not consider it, sir. (Flame in Scarlett's eyes.)
SCARLETT: Oh, yes, I will.
(Scarlett squeezes through the crowd to Butler. They go dancing.)
RHETT: We've sort of shocked the Confederacy, Scarlett.
SCARLETT: It's a little like blockade running, isn't it?
RHETT: It's worse. But I expect a very fancy profit out of it.
SCARLETT: I don't care what you expect or what they think, I'm
gonna dance and dance. Tonight I wouldn't mind
dancing with Abe Lincoln himself.
(In the Hamilton’s. Rhett pays a visit to Scarlett and brings
her a bonnet from Paris.)
SCARLETT: Oh, oh, oh the darling thing. Oh, Rhett, it's
lovely, lovely! You didn't really bring it all the way from
Paris just for me!
RHETT: Yes. I thought it was about time I got you out of
that fake mourning. Next trip I'll bring you some green
silk for a frock to match it.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett!
RHETT: It's my duty to blade boys at the front, to keep
our girls at home looking pretty.
SCARLETT: It's been so long since I had anything new.
(Scarlett tries the bonnet on. Then she diverts it,
considering this is the right way.)
SCARLETT: How do I look?
RHETT: Awful, just awful.
SCARLETT: Why, what's the matter?
RHETT: This war stopped being a joke when a girl like
you doesn't know how to wear the latest fashion.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, let me do it. But Rhett, I don't
know how I'd dare wear it.
RHETT: You will, though. And another thing. Those
pantalets. I don't know a woman in Paris wears pantalets
anymore.
SCARLETT: What do they... you shouldn't talk about such
things.
RHETT: You little "hypocrite, you don't mind my knowing
about them, just my talking about them.
SCARLETT: Rhett, I really can't go on accepting these
gifts. Though you are awfully kind.
RHETT: I'm not kind, I'm just tempting you. I never give
anything without expecting something in return. I always
get paid.
SCARLETT: If you think I'll marry you just to pay for the
bonnet, I won't.
RHETT: Don't flatter yourself, I'm not a marrying man.
SCARLETT: Well, I won't kiss you for it, either.
RHETT: Open your eyes and look at me. No, I don't think
I will kiss you. Although you need kissing badly. That's
what's wrong with you. You should be kissed, and often,
and by someone who knows how.
SCARLETT: And I suppose that you think that you are
the proper person.
RHETT: I might be, if the right moment ever came.
SCARLETT: You're a conceited, black- hearted varmint,
Rhett Butler, and I don't know why I let you come and see
me.
RHETT: I'll tell you why, Scarlett. Because I'm the only
man over sixteen and under sixty who's around to show
you a good time. But cheer up, the war can't last much
longer.
SCARLETT: Really, Rhett? Why?
RHETT: There's a little battle going on right now that
ought to pretty well fix things. One way or the other.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, is Ashley in it?
RHETT: So you still haven't gotten the wooden headed
Mr. Wilkes out of your mind? Yes, I suppose he's in it.
SCARLETT: Oh, tell me, Rhett, where is it?
RHETT: Some little town in Pennsylvania called
Gettysburg.
Chapter 5 Scarlett
Taking Care of
Melanie
(Atlanta prayed while onward surged the triumphant Yankees...Heads
were high, but hearts were heavy, as the wounded and the refugees
poured into unhappy Georgia......In the hospital, Scarlett helps out as a
nurse
there, but her patience was easily suffocated by the dying
and screaming there.)
Priest: With the Lord as my shepherd I shall not want.
He make oath me to lie down in green pastures. With the
sword at my soul. He lea death me in the paths of
"righteousness for his namesake. Yea, though I walked
through the valley at the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil. For thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they
comfort me.
VOICE: Mrs. Hamilton, Dr. Wilson is waiting.
SCARLETT: Let him wait, I'm going home, I've done
enough. I don't want any more men dying and screaming, I don't want
anymore.
(Scarlett runs out of the hospital onto the street, where she finds the
whole city is shaking in the flame of war. Everyone is fleeing. She is
totally at a loss what to do, then Butler comes with a carriage.)
RHETT: Scarlett! Whoah. Climb into this buggy, this is no day for
walking, you'll get run over.
SCARLETT: Rhett, ride me to where Aunt Pitty is, please.
RHETT: Panic's a pretty sight, isn't it. Whoah, whoah. That's just
another one of General Sherman’s calling cards. He'll be paying us a
visit soon.
SCARLETT: I've gotta get out of here, I gotta get out of here before
the Yankees come.
RHETT: And leave your work at the hospital? Or have you had
enough of death and lice and men chopped up? Well I suppose you
weren't meant for sick men, Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Don't talk to me like that, Rhett, I'm so scared, I wish I'd
get out of here!
RHETT: Let's get out of here together. No use staying here, letting the
South come down around your ears. There are too many nice places to
go and visit. Mexico, London, Paris...
SCARLETT: With you?
RHETT: Yes Ma'am. I'm the man who understands you and admires
you for just what you are. I figure we belong together, being the same
sort. I've been waiting for you to grow up and get that sad-eyed
Ashley Wilkes out of your heart. Well, I hear Mrs. Wilkes is going to
have a baby in
another month or so. It's be hard loving a man with a
wife and baby clinging to him. Well, here we are. Are you
going with me or are you getting out?
SCARLETT: I hate and despise you, Rhett Butler. And
I'll hate and despise you till I die!
RHETT: Oh, no, you won't, Scarlett, not that long.
(The Hamilton’s. Scarlett is packing, preparing for
leaving.)
DR. MEADE: What is this? You ain't planning on running
away?
SCARLETT: And don't you dare try to stop me. I'm never
going back to that hospital, I've had enough of smelling
death and rot and death...I'm going home, I want my
mother. My mother needs me.
DR. MEADE: You've got to listen to me. You must stay
here.
AUNT PITTY: Without a chaperone, Dr. Meade, it simply
isn't done.
DR. MEADE: Good Heaven's woman, this is war, not a
garden party. Scarlett, you've got to stay, Melanie needs
you.
SCARLETT: Oh, bother Melanie!
DR. MEADE: She's ill already. She shouldn't even be
having a baby. She may have a difficult time.
SCARLETT: Can't we take her along?
DR. MEADE: Would you want her to take that chance?
Would you want her to be taunted over rough roads and
have the baby ahead of time in the buggy?
SCARLETT: It isn't my baby, you take care of it.
DR. MEADE: Scarlett, we haven't enough doctors, much less nurses
to look after a sick woman. You've got to stay for Melanie.
SCARLETT: What for? I don't know anything about babies being
borne.
PRISSY: I knows! I knows! I knows how to do it. I've done it lots
and lots. let me doctor, let me. I can do everything.
DR. MEADE: Good. Then I'll rely on you to help us. PRISSY: Yes
Doctor.
DR. MEADE: Ashley's fighting on the field. Fighting for the cause.
He may never come back. He may die. Scarlett, we owe him a well
borne child. AUNT PITTY: If you're coming Scarlett, hurry!
SCARLETT: I promised Ashley, something.
DR. MEADE: Then you'll stay? Good. Go along Miss Pitti fett.
Scarlett's staying.
SCARLETT: Prissy! Prissy! Come here Prissy! Go pack my things
and Miss Melanie's, too. We're to Tara right away, the Yankees are
coming.
MELANIE: Scarlett! Scarlett!
SCARLETT: Oh, Melanie, we're going to... Melanie.
MELANIE: I'm sorry to be such a bother, Scarlett. It'll begin at
daybreak.
SCARLETT: But, the Yankees are coming.
MELANIE: Poor Scarlett...you'd be at Tara now with your mother,
wouldn't you? If it weren't for me...Oh, Scarlett
darling, you've been so good to me. No sister could have
been sweeter. I've been lying here thinking, if I should
die, will you take my baby?
SCARLETT: Oh, fiddle-dee-dee, Melanie, aren't things bad
enough without you talking about dying? I'll send for Dr.
Meade right away.
MELANIE: Not yet, Scarlett. I couldn't let Dr. Meade sit
here for hours while, while all those poor, badly wounded
boys...
SCARLETT: Prissy! Prissy come here quick! Prissy, go
get Dr. Meade, run quick! Don't stand there like a scared
goat, run! Hurry, Hurry! I'll sell you South I will, I swear
I will! I'll sell you South!
(Later, Prissy comes back alone. Scarlett has to find the
doctor herself.)
PRISSY: Is the doctor coming?
SCARLETT: No, he can't come.
PRISSY: Oh, Miss Scarlett, Miss Melanie bad off!
SCARLETT: He can't come, there's nobody to come. Prissy,
you've got to manage without the doctor. I'll help you.
PRISSY: Oh, lawdsy, Miss Scarlett!
SCARLETT: What is it?
PRISSY: Lawdsy, we've got to have a doctor! I don't know
nothing about birthing babies.
SCARLETT: What do you mean? You told me you knew
everything about it!
PRISSY: I don't know how can I tell such a lie. Ma ain't
never let me around when folks was having them.
SCARLETT: Go! Stop it! Go light a fire on the stove. Get boiling
water in the kettle. Get me a ball of twine, and all the clean towels you
can find, and, the scissors. And don't come telling me you can't find
them. Go get them and get them quick!
Chapter
6 Back to Tara
(Panic hit the city with the first of Sherman shells......
Helpless and unarmed, the populace fled from the
oncoming Juggernaut . And desperately the gallant
"remnants of an army marched out to face the foe. Melanie
gives birth to a child with the help of Scarlett. Now Scarlett
sends Prissy for Rhett Butler, she's getting ready to leave.)
RHETT: Whoah, whoah.
SCARLETT: Rhett, is that you, Rhett?
PRISSY: He's here, Miss Scarlett, he's here!
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, I knew you'd come.
RHETT: Good evening. Nice weather we're having. Prissy
tells me you're planning on...
SCARLETT: If you make any jokes now, I'll kill you!
RHETT: Don't tell me you're frightened.
SCARLETT: I'm scared to death, and if you had the sense
of a goat you'd be scared, too! Oh, the Yankees!
RHETT: No, not yet, that's what's left by our army blowing
up the ammunition, so the Yankees won't get it.
SCARLETT: We've got to get out of here.
RHETT: At your service, Madame. Just where were you
figuring on going?
SCARLETT: Home, to Tara.
RHETT: Tara? Don't you know that they've been fighting
all day around Tara? Do you think you can parade right
through the Yankee army with a sick woman, a baby and
simply minded darkie? Or do you intend leaving them
behind.
SCARLETT: They're going with me and I'm going home
and you can't stop me!
RHETT: Don't you know it's dangerous jouncing Mrs.
Wilkes over miles of open country?
SCARLETT: I want my mother! I want to go home to Tara!
RHETT: Tara's probably been burned to the ground. The
woods are full of ^stragglers from both armies, the least
thing they'll do is take the horse away from you. And even
though it isn't much of an animal, I did have a lot of trouble
stealing it.
SCARLETT: I'm going home if I have to walk every step
of the way! I'll kill you if you try to stop me, I will! I will!
I will! I will!
RHETT: It's all right, darling, it's all right. Now you shall
go home. I guess anybody who did what you've done today
can take care of Sherman. Stop crying. Now blow your
nose like a good little girl...there...
SCARLETT: Prissy, what are you doing? PRISSY: I'm packing,
Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Well, stop it. Come and get the baby PRISSY: Yes.
SCARLETT: Melanie, Melanie...
RHETT: Mrs. Wilkes. We're taking you to Tara.
MELANIE: Tara...
SCARLETT: It's the only way, Melanie.
MELANIE: No...
SCARLETT: Sherman will bum the house over our heads if we stay.
It's all right, Melanie, it's all right.
MELANIE: There, there.... little baby..
RHETT: Have you the strength to put your arms around my neck?
MELANIE: I think so.
RHETT: Never mind.
MELANIE: Oh, Ashley.. Charles!
RHETT: What is it? What does she want?
SCARLETT: Ashley's picture and Charles' sword, she wants us to
bring them.
RHETT: Get them.
(They venture all the way. At last they are pretty near Tara. Rhett
suddenly stops.)
SCARLETT: Why did you stop?
RHETT: This is the turn to Tara. I let the horse breathe a bit. Mrs.
Wilkes...
PRISSY: Miss Melanie done fainted way back. Captain Butler.
RHETT: She's probably better off. She couldn't stand the
pain if she were conscious. Scarlett, are you still determined to do
this crazy thing?
SCAELETT: Oh, yes, yes, I know we can get
through it, I'm sure we can.
RHETT: Not we, my dear, you. I'm leaving you here.
SCARLETT: You're what? Rhett, where are you going?
RHETT: I'm going, my dear, to join the army.
SCARLETT: Oh, you're joking. I could kill you for scaring me so.
RHETT: I'm very serious, Scarlett. I'm going to join up with our
brave lads in gray.
SCARLETT: But they're running away.
RHETT: Oh, no, they'll turn and make a last stand, if I know
anything about them. And when they do, I'll be with them. I'm a little
late, but better late than...
SCARLETT: Rhett, you must be joking.
RHETT: Selfish to the end, aren't you? Thinking of your own
precious hide with never a thought for the noble cause.
SCARLETT: Rhett, how could you do this to me, and why should
you go now that, after it's all over and I need you, why? Why?
RHETT: Why? Maybe it's because I've always had a weakness for
lost causes, once they're really lost. Or maybe, maybe I'm ashamed of
myself. Who knows?
SCARLETT: You should die of shame to leave me here alone and
helpless.
RHETT: You, helpless? Heaven help the Yankees if they
capture you. Now climb down here. I want to say goodbye.
SCARLETT: No.
RHETT: Climb down.
SCARLETT: Oh Rhett, please don't go. You can't leave me, please,
I'll never forgive you.
RHETT: I'm not asking you to forgive me. I'll never understand or
forgive myself. And if a bullet gets me, so help me, I'll laugh at
myself for being an idiot. But there's one thing that I do know. And
that is I love you, Scarlett. In spite of you and me and the whole silly
world going to pieces around us, I love you. Because we're alike. Bad
lots, both of us. Selfish and shrewd. But able to look things in the
eyes and call them by their right names.
SCARLETT: Don't hold me like that.
RHETT: Scarlett, look at me. I love you more than I've ever loved
any woman. And I've waited longer for you than I've ever waited for
any woman. (Butler is pressing his lips onto Scarlett's.)
SCARLETT: Let me alone!
RHETT: Here's a soldier of the South that loves you, Scarlett. Wants
to feel your arms around him, wants to carry the memory of your
kisses into battle with him. Never mind about loving me. You're a
woman who's sending a soldier to his death with a beautiful memory.
Scarlett, kiss me, kiss me, once.
SCARLETT: You're a low-down, cowardly, nasty thing, you! They
were right. Everybody was right, you, you aren't a gentleman.
RHETT: A minor point at such a moment. Here, if anyone
lays a hand on that nag, shoot him. But don't make a
mistake and shoot the nag.
SCARLETT: Oh, go on. I want you to go. I hope a
cannonball lands slap on you, I hope you're blown into a
million pieces, I...
RHETT: Never mind the rest, I follow your general idea.
And when I'm dead on the order of my country, I hope
your conscience heard you. Good-bye Scarlett.
(Scarlett drives on.)
SCARLETT: Melanie, Melanie, we're home! We're at
Tara! Hurry, move brute!
PRISSY: Oh, Miss Scarlett, he's dead!
SCARLETT: I can't see the house, is it there? I can't see
the house, have they burned it? It's all right, it's all right,
they haven't burned it. It's still there!
(Tara had survived, to face the hell and famine of defeat.)
SCARLETT: Mother! Mother, I'm home! Mother, I'm
home! Mother let me in, it's me, Scarlett. Oh, Paw, I'm
home, I'm home... I'm home.
Mr. O'HARA: Careful, careful
Scarlett...
SCARLETT: Mammy, mammy, I'm home.
MAMMIE: Oh, honey child...
SCARLETT: Mammy, I'm so, so....where's mother?
MAMMIE: Why...Miss Sue Ellen, Miss Careen, they
were sick with the typhoid. They had it bad, but they's
doing all right now. Just weak like little ^kittens.
SCARLETT: But, where's mother?
MAMMIE: Well, Miss Ellen, she went down to nurse that Emmy
Sladdly, that white trash. And she took down with it, too. Then last
night, she...
SCARLETT: Mother? Mother? Mother! (Scarlett walks into her
mother's room faintly. There, in dark and quietness, lies Mrs. O'Hara.
She's dead.) Mammy: Miss Scarlett honey...
SERVANT: If there's anything I can do, Miss Scarlett...
SCARLETT: What did you do with Miss Melanie?
MAMMIE: Don't you worry your pretty head about Miss Melanie,
child. I done slapped her in bed already along with the baby.
SCARLETT: You better put that cow I brought into the barn, Paul.
SERVANT: there ain’t no barn.
MAMMIE: Don't you worry your pretty head about Miss Melanie,
child. I done slapped her in bed already along with the baby.
SCARLETT: You better put that cow I brought into the barn, Paul.
SERVANT: there ain’t a barn any more, Miss Scarlett. The Yankees
done burned it to firewood.
MAMMIE: They used the house for their headquarters Miss Scarlett.
SERVANT: They camped all around the place.
SCARLETT: Yankees in Tara?
MAMMIE: Yes'm. And they stole almost everything they didn't burn.
All the clothes, and all the rugs, and even
Miss Ellen's rosaries.
SCARLETT: I'm starving, Paul. Get me something to eat.
MAMMIE: there ain’t anything to eat honey. They took it all.
SCARLETT: All the chickens, everything?
SERVANT: They took them the first day. And what they didn't eat
they carried off across their saddles.
SCARLETT: Don't tell me any more about what they did. (Scarlett
goes into the room, finding her father in solitude.)
SCARLETT: What's this , Paw? Whisky?
Mr. O'HARA: Yes daughter. Katie Scarlett, that's enough. Your not
knowing spirits, you'll make yourself '''tipsy.
SCARLETT: I hope it makes me drunk. I'd like to be drunk. Oh,
Paw...what are those papers?
Mr. O'HARA: Bonds. They're all we've saved. All we have left.
Bonds.
SCARLETT: But what kind of bonds, Paw?
Mr. O'HARA: Why, Confederate bonds of course, darling.
SCARLETT: Confederate bonds. What good are they to anybody?
Mr. O'HARA: I'll not have you talking like that, Katie Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Oh, Paw, what are we going to do with no money
and, ...and nothing to eat?
Mr. O'HARA: We must ask your mother. That's it. We must ask Mrs.
O'Hara.
SCARLETT: Ask Mother?
Mr. O'HARA: Yes. Mrs. O'Hara will know what's to be
done. Now don't be bothering me. Go out for a ride. I'm
busy.
SCARLETT: Oh, Paw. Don't worry about anything. It is
God's hope. You needn't worry.
(Scarlett leaves the room, closing the door behind her.)
MAMMIE: Miss Scarlett? What are we going to do with
nothing to feed them sick folks and that child?
SCARLETT: I don't know Mammy. I don't know.
MAMMIE: we ain’t got anything but radishes in the garden.
PRISSY: Miss Scarlett, Miss Sue Ellen and Miss Corrine,
They's fusion to be sponged off.
SCARLETT: Where are the other servants Mammie?
MAMMIE: Miss Scarlett, there's only just me and Paul
left. The others moved off during the war and ran away.
PRISSY: I can't take care of that baby and sick folks too.
I've only got two hands.
SERVANT: Who's going to milk that cow, Miss Scarlett?
We's house workers.
(Exhausted and hungry as Scarlett is, she goes out to the
open field, digging out the leftover radishes in the ground,
swallowing. )
SCARLETT: As God as my witness....as God as my witness
they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this
and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor
any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill, as God
as my witness, I'll never be hungry again.
Chapter 7 Ashley
Back Home
(Home from their lost adventure came the lattered
Cavaliers. Grimly they came hobbling back to the
desolation that had once been a land of grace and plenty.
And with them came another invader, more cruel and
vicious than any they had fought, the Carpetbagger.)
SERVANT: Katie Scarlett! It's over! It's over! It's all over,
the war! We surrendered!
CORRINE: It's not possible.
SUE ELLEN: Why did we ever fight?
MELANIE: Ashely will be coming home.
SCARLETT: Yes, Ashely will be coming home. We'll plant
more cotton. Cotton ought to go sky-high next year.
MELANIE: Scarlett, what seems to be the trouble with
Mr. Kennedy?
SCARLETT: More trouble than he guesses. He's finally
asked for Sue Ellen's hand.
MELANIE: Oh, I'm so glad.
SCARLETT: It's a pity he can't marry her now. At least
be one less mouth to feed.
(Scarlett, Melanie and Mammie stand in front of the door.
A figure appears in the distance.)
SCARLETT: Oh another one. I hope this one isn't hungry.
MAMMIE: Oh, he'll be hungry
SCARLETT: I'll tell Prissy to get an extra plate.
(It's Ashley! Melanie opens her arms, running to him.)
MELANIE: Ashley! Ashley!
MAMMIE: Miss Scarlett! Don't spoil it. Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Turn me loose, you fool, turn me loose! It's
Ashley.
MAMMIE: He's her husband, Auntie.
(Several days passed. One day, a servant comes to
Scarlett.)
SERVANT: Miss Scarlett Ma'am...
SCARLETT: High time you got back. Did you get the horse
shod?
SERVANT: Yes'm, he shod all right. Miss Scarlett Ma'am.
SCARLETT: Fine thing when a horse can get shoes and
humans can't. Here stir the soup.
SERVANT: Miss Scarlett Ma'am, I've got to know how
much money have you got left? In gold.
SCARLETT: Ten dollars. Why?
SERVANT: That won't be enough.
SCARLETT: What in Heaven's name are you talking
about?
SERVANT: Well, Miss Scarlett, I see that old no-account
white trash, Wilkinson, that used to be Mister Jerry's
overseer here. He's a regular Yankee now, and he was
making a brag, that his carpetbagger friends done run
the taxes way up sky-high on Tara.
SCARLETT: How much more do we gotta pay?
SERVANT: I heard the tax man say three hundred dollars.
SCARLETT: Three hundred... Oh, my, just as well be three
million. Well, we gotta raise it, that's all.
SERVANT: Yes'm. How?
SCARLETT: I'll go ask Mr. Ashley.
SERVANT: Oh, he ain't got no three hundred dollars. Miss
Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Well, I can ask him if I want to, can't I?
SERVANT: Asking ain't getting.
(The Farm. Ashley is chopping wood.)
SCARLETT: Ashley...
ASHLEY: They say Abe Lincoln got his start splitting rails.
Just think what heights I may climb to once I get the
"knack.
SCARLETT: Ashley. The Yankees want three hundred
dollars more in taxes. What shall we do? Ashley, what's to
become of us?
ASHLEY: What do you think becomes of people when
their civilization breaks up? Those who have brains and
courage come through all right. Those who haven't are
winnowed out.
SCARLETT: For Heaven's sake Ashley Wilkes. Don't stand
there talking nonsense at me when it's us who are being
winnowed out.
ASHLEY: You're right, Scarlett. Here I am talking
tummy-rot about civilization, when your Tara's in danger.
You come to me for help and I have no help to give you.
Oh, Scarlett, I'm a coward.
SCARLETT: You, Ashley, a coward? What are you afraid
of?
ASHLEY: Oh, mostly of life becoming too real for me, I
suppose. Not that I mind splitting rails. But I do mind very much
losing the beauty of that, that life I loved. If the war hadn't come, I'd
have spent my life happily buried at Twelve Oaks. But the war did
come. I saw my boyhood friends blown to bits. I saw men crumple3
up in agony when I shot them. And now I find myself in a world
which for me is worse than death. A world in which there is no place
for me. Oh, I can never make you understand, because you don't know
the meaning of fear. You never mind facing realities. And you never
want to escape from them as I do.
SCARLETT: Escape? Oh, Ashley you're wrong. I do want to escape,
too. I'm so very tired of it all. I've struggled for food and for money
and I've weeded and hoed and picked cotton until I can't stand it
another minute. I tell you, Ashley, the South is dead, it's dead. The
Yankees and the carpetbaggers have got it and there's nothing left for
us. Oh, Ashley, let's run away. We'd go to Mexico. They want officers
in the Mexican army, we could be so happy there. Ashley I'd work for
you, I'd do anything for you. You know you don't love Melanie, you
told me you loved me that day at Twelve Oaks, and anyway, Melanie
can't...Dr. Meade told me she couldn't ever have any more children.
And I could give you...
ASHLEY: Can't we ever forget that day at Twelve Oaks?
SCARLETT: Just think I could ever forget it, have you forgotten it?
Can you honestly say you don't love me?
ASHLEY: No, I ...I don't love you.
SCARLETT: It's a lie.
ASHLEY: Even if it is a lie, do you think that I could go off and
leave Melanie and the baby? Break Melanie's heart? Scarlett, are you
mad? You couldn't leave your father and the girls.
SCARLETT: I could leave them, I'm sick of them, I'm tired of
them...
ASHLEY: Yes, you sick and tired, that's why you're talking this way.
You've carried the load for all of us. But from now on, I'm going to
be more help to you, I promise.
SCARLETT: There's only one way you can help me. Take me away.
There's nothing to keep us here.
ASHLEY: Nothing...nothing except honor. Please Scarlett, please
dear, you mustn't cry. Please, my brave dear, you mustn't...
SCARLETT: You do love me, you do love me...
ASHLEY: No don't, don't!
SCARLETT: You love me!
ASHLEY: We won't do this, I tell you, we won't do it. It won't
happen again, I'm going to take Melanie and the baby and go.
SCARLETT: Just say that you love me.
ASHLEY: All right, I'll say it. I love your courage and your
stubbornness. I love them so much that a moment ago I could have
forgotten the best wife a man ever had. But Scarlett, I'm not going to
forget her.
SCARLETT: Then there's nothing left for me. Nothing to fight for.
Nothing to live for.
ASHLEY: Yes, there is something. Something you love
better than me, though you may not know it, Tara. (Ashley puts into
Scarlett's hands some soil.)
SCARLETT: Yes, I...I still have this. You needn't go. I won't have
you all starve simply because I threw myself at your head. It won't
happen again.
Chapter 8
Raising of the Tax
(Wilkinson, Mr. O'Hara's ex-overseer, comes to Tara with his newly-
married wife. They intend to buy Tara, for they know the "turbulence
Tara now is in.)
SCARLETT: Why, Emmy Sladdly EMMY SLADDLY: Yes'm, it's
me.
SCARLETT: Stop!
WILKENSON: You haven't forgotten your old overseer, have you?
Huh? Well, Emmy is Mrs. Wilkinson now...
SCARLETT: Get off those steps, you trashy wench. Get off this land!
WILKENSON: You can't speak that way to my wife.
SCARLETT: Why? High time you made her your wife. Who baptized
your other brats after you killed my mother? WILKENSON: We came
out here to pay a call. A friendly call, and talk a little business with
old friends.
SCARLETT: Friends. When were we ever friends with the likes of
you?
WILKENSON: Still high and mighty ain't you? Well, I
know all about you. I know your father's turned idiot. You
can't pay your taxes. And I come out to offer to buy the
place from you. To make you a right good offer. Emmy's
got a ^hankering to live here.
SCARLETT: Get off this place, you dirty Yankee!
WILKENSON: You bum-trucking, high-flying Irish will
find out who's running things around here when you get
sold out for taxes. I'll buy this place, lock, stock and barrel
and I'll live in it. But I'll wait for the sheriff's sale.
SCARLETT: That's all of Tara you'll ever get.
(Scarlett throws the ball to Wilkinson’s face. of soil which
Ashley put in her hand.)
WILKENSON: You'll be sorry for that. We'll be back!
(Mr. O'Hara mounts his horse. In a fame of anger, he tries
to cut the way and catch the Wilkinson’s.)
Mr. O'HARA: I saw you holding on to the carriage!
SCARLETT: Paw, come back!
Mr. O'HARA: Yankee coward!
SCARLETT: Paw!
(Mr. O'Hara falls down to the ground. He never rises again.
Days after...)
SCARLETT: Oh, Mammie, Mammie.
MAMMIE: You've been brave so long, Miss Scarlett. You
just got to go on being brave. Think about your Paw, like
he used to be.
SCARLETT: I can't think about Paw. I can't think of
anything but that three hundred dollars.
MAMMIE: Ain't no good thinking about that. Miss
Scarlett. Ain't nobody got that much money. Nobody but
that Yankee's and the scallow-wags got that much money
now.
SCARLETT: Rhett!
MAMMIE: Who that? A Yankee?
SCARLETT: Oh, Mammie, I'm so thin and pale and...I
haven't any clothes. Go up to the attic Mammie, and get
down Ma's old box of dress patterns.
MAMMIE: What are you up to in Miss Ellen's Fortier?
SCARLETT: You're going to make me a new dress!
MAMMIE: Not with Miss Ellen's for tiers, not while I got
breath in my body!
SCARLETT: Great balls of fire, they're my for tiers now.
I'm going to Atlanta for that three hundred dollars, and
I've got to go looking like a queen.
MAMMIE: Who's going to Atlanta with you?
SCARLETT: I'm going alone.
MAMMIE: That's what you think. I'm going to Atlanta
with you, with you and that new dress.
SCARLETT: Now Mammie darling...
MAMMIE: No use to try and sweet talk me Miss Scarlett,
I knows you ever since I put the first pair of diapers on
you. I says I was going to Atlanta with you, and going I is!
(Atlanta prison. Rhett Butler and the prison Major are
playing cards at a table.)
MAN: Sir, there's a lady to see Captain Butler. Says she's your sister.
MAJOR: Another sister? This is a jail, not a 'harem, Captain Butler.
MAN: No, Major, she ain't one of those. This one's got her mammie
with her.
RHETT: She has? I'd like to see this one, Major, without her
mammie.
MAJOR: Hmm...
RHETT: Let's see, my losses for the afternoon come to what? Hmm...
three hundred and forty. My debts do mount up, don't they, Major?
MAJOR: All right, Corporal. Show Captain Butler's sister to his cell.
RHETT: Thank you, Major...excuse me, gentlemen.
MAJOR: It's hard to be strict with a man who loses money so
pleasantly.
(In the jail. Scarlett appears, dressing in beautiful green velvet.)
SCARLETT: Rhett!
RHETT: Scarlett! My dear little sister. (to Corporal) It's all right
Corporal, my sister has brought me now files or saws. Can I really
kiss you now?
SCARLETT: On the forehead like a good brother.
RHETT: No thanks, I'll wait and hope for better things.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, I was so distressed when I heard you were
in jail. I simply couldn't sleep for thinking. It's not true they're going
to hang you.
RHETT: Would you be sorry?
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett...
RHETT: Well, don't worry. Yeah, The Yankees have
trumped up some charge against me but what they're
really after is my money. They seem to think I made off
with a Confederate treasury.
SCARLETT: Well, did you?
RHETT: What a leading question. Let's not talk about
"sordid things like money. How good of you to come and
see me. And how pretty you look.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, how you do run on teasing a
country girl like me.
RHETT: Thank Heaven's you're not in rags, I'm tired of
seeing women in rags. Turn around. You look good enough
to eat. Prosperous, too.
SCARLETT: Thank you, I've been doing very well.
Everybody's doing well at Tara, only, I got so bored, I just
thought I'd treat myself with to visit to town.
RHETT: You're a heartless creature but that's part of your
charm. Though you've got more charm than the law
allows.
SCARLETT: Now I did come here to talk senseless about
me, Rhett. I came because I was so miserable at the
thought of you in trouble. Oh, I know I was mad at you
the night you left me on the road to Tara, and I still haven't
Forgiven you.
RHETT: Oh, Scarlett, don't say that.
SCARLETT: Well, I must admit I might not be alive now. Only for
you. And when I think of myself with anything I could possibly hope
for, and not a care in the world, and you where here in this horrid jail.
And not even a human jail, Rhett, a horse jail. But listen to me, try to
make jokes when, when I really want to cry. And in a minute I shall
cry.
RHETT: Scarlett, can it be possible that...
SCARLETT: Can what be possible, Rhett?
RHETT: That you've grown a woman's heart? A real woman's heart.
SCARLETT: I have Rhett. I know I have.
RHETT: You know it's worth being in jail just to hear you say
that. It's well worth it. (Rhett grasps Scarlett's hands. And suddenly, he
reads the callous skin of her hands. This is a pair of hard-working
hands.) You can drop the moonlight and magnolia, Scarlett. So
things have been going well at Tara, have they?
SCARLETT: Yes...
RHETT: What have you been doing with your hands?
SCARLETT: It's just that, I went riding last week without my
gloves...
RHETT: These don't belong to a lady, you've been working with
them like a field hand. Why did you lie to me, and what are you really
up to?
SCARLETT: Now Rhett...
RHETT: In another minute, Id almost believed you'd cared
something.
SCARLETT: But I do care!
RHETT: Suppose we get down to the truth. You want something
from me and you want it badly enough to put on quite a show on your
velvets. What is it, money?
SCARLETT: I want three hundred dollars to pay the taxes on Tara.
Oh Rhett, I did lie to you when I said everything was all right. Things
are just as bad as they possibly could be. And you've got millions,
Rhett.
RHETT: What collateral are you offering?
SCARLETT: My ear bobs...
RHETT: Not interested.
SCARLETT: Mortgage on Tara...
RHETT: What would I do with a farm?
SCARLETT: You wouldn't lose, I'd pay you back after next year's
cotton.
RHETT: Not good enough. Have you nothing better?
SCARLETT: You once said you loved me. If you still love me,
Rhett...
RHETT: You haven't forgotten that I'm not a marrying man.
SCARLETT: No. I haven't forgotten,
RHETT: You're not worth three hundred dollars. You'll never mean
anything but misery to any man.
SCARLETT: Go on, insult me, I don't care what you say, only give
me the money! I won't let Tara go, I can't let it go while there's a
breath left in my body. Oh, Rhett, won't you please give me the
money?
RHETT: I couldn't give you the money if I wanted to. My funds are
in Liverpool, not in Atlanta. If I tried drawing a
draft, the Yankees would be on me like a duck on a June bug. So you
see my dear, you've abased yourself to no purpose. Stop it! You want
the Yankees to see like this?
SCARLETT: Take your hands off me, you dunk! You know what I am
going to say before I started. You knew you wouldn't lend me the
money and yet, and yet, you let me go on.
RHETT: I enjoyed hearing what you had to say. Cheer up, you can
come to my hanging and I'll remember you in my will.
SCARLETT: I'll come to your hanging. The only thing I'm afraid of is
they won't hang you in time to pay the taxes on Tara.
Chapter
9Scarlett's Second Marriage
(Scarlett leaves the jail in burning anger. But the visit of
Scarlett and her new dress to Atlanta is not a complete
"futility. She meets Frank Kennedy, Sue Ellen's beau.)
FRANK: Surely it can't be Miss Scarlett!
SCARLETT: Why, Frank Kennedy!
FRANK: And Mammie...
MAMMIE: It sure is good to see home folks.
FRANK: I didn't know you were in Atlanta.
SCARLETT: I didn't know you were.
FRANK: Didn't Miss Sue Ellen tell you about my store?
SCARLETT: Did she, I don't remember. Have you a store? This?
FRANK: Won't you come in, look around a bit? (Into the store) I
don't suppose it looks like much to a lady, but I can't help being
proud of it.
SCARLETT: You're not making money?
FRANK: Well, I can't complain. In fact I'm mighty encouraged.
Folks tell me I'm just a born merchant. It won't be long now before
Miss Sue Ellen and I can marry.
SCARLETT: Well , you're doing as well as all that?
FRANK: Yes, I am. Miss Scarlett. I'm no millionaire yet, but I have
cleared a thousand dollars already.
SCARLETT: And lumber too.
FRANK: Well, that's only a sideline.
SCARLETT: A sideline, Frank? With all the good Georgia pine
around Atlanta, and all this building going on?
FRANK: Well, all that takes money, Miss Scarlett, and, I got to be
thinking about buying a home.
SCARLETT: What would you want a home for?
FRANK: For Miss Sue Ellen and me to set up housekeeping.
SCARLETT: Here in Atlanta. You'd want to bring her to Atlanta,
wouldn't you? There wouldn't be much help in that for Tara.
FRANK: I don't rightly know what you mean, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: I don't mean a thing. Frank, how'd you like to drive me
out to my Aunt Pitty's?
FRANK: Oh, nothing could give me more pleasure, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: I think you'd better stay for supper, too. I'm sure Aunt
Pitty would be agreeable and I know I'd like a good long visit with
you.
FRANK: Oh, you act on me just like a ^tonic, Miss Scarlett. And will
you tell me all the news, all the news of Miss Sue Ellen? What's the
matter, Miss Scarlett? Miss Sue Ellen's not ill, is she?
SCARLETT: Oh, no, no. I thought surely she had written you. I guess
she was ashamed to write to you. She should be ashamed. Oh how
awful to have such a mean sister.
FRANK: You must tell me, Miss Scarlett. Don't leave me on the
tender hooks.
SCARLETT: Well, she's going to marry one of the county boys next
month. She just got tired of waiting and was afraid she'd be an old
maid and...Oh, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you. Oh, it's cold, and I
left my muff at home. Would you mind if I put my hand in your
pocket? (Scarlett returns to Tara as Mrs. Kennedy, with 300 dollars, to
face Sue Ellen's broken heart and the astonishment of the other
people.) SUE ELLEN: But Melanie, you don't realize what she's done.
She's gone and married my Mr. Kennedy! He's my beau and she's
gone and married him.
MELANIE: She did it to save Tara, you must understand that, Sue
Ellen.
SUE ELLEN: I hate Tara. And I hate Scarlett. She's the only thing I
hate worse than Tara!
(In the living room.)
ASHLEY: It's all my fault. I should have committed highway robbery
to get that tax money for you.
SCARLETT: I couldn't let you do anything like that, and anyway, it's
done now.
ASHLEY: Yes, it's done now. You wouldn't let me do anything
dishonorable yet you'd sell yourself in marriage to a man you didn't
love. Well, at least you won't have to worry about my helplessness
anymore.
SCARLETT: What do you mean?
ASHLEY: I'm going to New York. I've arranged to get a position in a
bank there.
SCARLETT: But you can't do that! I've counted on you to help me
start a lumber business Ashley and, I counted on you.
ASHLEY: Scarlett, I wouldn't be any good to you, I don't know
anything about the lumber business.
SCARLETT: You know as much as you do about banking, and I'd
give you half the business Ashley.
ASHLEY: That's generous of you Scarlett. But it isn't that. If I go to
Atlanta and take help from you again, I'd bury forever any hope of
standing alone.
SCARLETT: Oh, is that all? Well, you could gradually buy the
business, and then it would be your own, and then...
ASHLEY: No Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Oh, Ashley! Ashley
(Melanie walks in.)
MELANIE: Scarlett. Scarlett, what is it?
SCARLETT: Ashley is so mean and hateful.
MELANIE: (to Ashley )What have you done?
ASHLEY: She, she wanted me to
