Gone With the Wind

"Please go, now."

He walked out into the dim hall and picked up the hat he had dropped on the doorsill.

"I will be seeing you Sunday at dinner," he said and went out, closing the door noiselessly behind him.

Scarlett arose at five-thirty, before the servants had come in from the back yard to start breakfast, and slipped down the steps to the quiet lower floor. Gerald was awake, sitting on the sofa, his hands gripping his bullet head as if he wished to crush it between his palms. He looked up furtively as she entered. The pain of moving his eyes was too excruciating to be borne and he groaned.

"Wurra the day!"

"It's a fine way you've acted, Pa," she began in a furious whisper. "Coming home at such an hour and waking all the neighbors with your singing."

"I sang?"

"Sang! You woke the echoes singing the 'Lament.' "

" 'Tis nothing I'm remembering."

"The neighbors will remember it till their dying day and so will Miss Pittypat and Melanie."

"Mother of Sorrows," moaned Gerald, moving a thickly furred tongue around parched lips. " 'Tis little I'm remembering after the game started."

"Game?"

"That laddybuck Butler bragged that he was the best poker player in -- "

"How much did you lose?"

"Why, I won, naturally. A drink or two helps me game."

"Look in your wallet."

As if every movement was agony, Gerald removed his wallet from his coat and opened it. It was empty and he looked at it in forlorn bewilderment.

"Five hundred dollars," he said. "And 'twas to buy things from the blockaders for Mrs. O'Hara, and now not even fare left to Tara."

As she looked indignantly at the empty purse, an idea took form in Scarlett's mind and grew swiftly.

"I'll not be holding up my head in this town," she began. "You've disgraced us all."

"Hold your tongue, Puss. Can you not see me head is bursting?"

"Coming home drunk with a man like Captain Butler, and singing at the top of your lungs for everyone to hear and losing all that money."

"The man is too clever with cards to be a gentleman. He --"

"What will Mother say when she hears?"

He looked up in sudden anguished apprehension.

"You wouldn't be telling your mother a word and upsetting her, now would you?"

Scarlett said nothing but pursed her lips.

"Think now how 'twould hurt her and her so gentle."

"And to think, Pa, that you said only last night I had disgraced the family! Me, with my poor little dance to make money for the soldiers. Oh, I could cry."

"Well, don't," pleaded Gerald. " 'Twould be more than me poor head could stand and sure 'tis bursting now."