Indignantly that from the way Scarlett was acting she was likely to

have the baby on the public streets.

But all the previous criticism of her conduct was as nothing

compared with the buzz of gossip that now went through the town.

Scarlett was not only trafficking with the Yankees but was giving

every appearance of really liking it!

Mrs. Merriwether and many other Southerners were also doing

business with the newcomers from the North, but the difference was

that they did not like it and plainly showed they did not like it.

And Scarlett did, or seemed to, which was just as bad. She had

actually taken tea with the Yankee officers' wives in their homes!

In fact, she had done practically everything short of inviting them

into her own home, and the town guessed she would do even that,

except for Aunt Pitty and Frank.

Scarlett knew the town was talking but she did not care, could not

afford to care. She still hated the Yankees with as fierce a hate

as on the day when they tried to burn Tara, but she could dissemble

that hate. She knew that if she was going to make money, she would

have to make it out of the Yankees, and she had learned that

buttering them up with smiles and kind words was the surest way to

get their business for her mill.

Some day when she was very rich and her money was hidden away where

the Yankees could not find it, then, then she would tell them

exactly what she thought of them, tell them how she hated and

loathed and despised them. And what a joy that would be! But

until that time came, it was just plain common sense to get along

with them. And if that was hypocrisy, let Atlanta make the most of

it.

She discovered that making friends with the Yankee officers was as

easy as shooting birds on the ground. They were lonely exiles in a

hostile land and many of them were starved for polite feminine

associations in a town where respectable women drew their skirts

aside in passing and looked as if they would like to spit on them.

Only the prostitutes and the negro women had kind words for them.

But Scarlett was obviously a lady and a lady of family, for all

that she worked, and they thrilled to her flashing smile and the

pleasant light in her green eyes.

Frequently when Scarlett sat in her buggy talking to them and

making her dimples play, her dislike for them rose so strong that

It was hard not to curse them to their faces. But she restrained

herself and she found that twisting Yankee men around her finger

was no more difficult than that same diversion had been with

Southern men. Only this was no diversion but a grim business. The

role she enacted was that of a refined sweet Southern lady in

distress. With an air of dignified reserve she was able to keep

her victims at their proper distance, but there was nevertheless a

graciousness in her manner which left a certain warmth in the

Yankee officers' memories of Mrs. Kennedy.

This warmth was very profitable--as Scarlett had intended it to be.

Many of the officers of the garrison, not knowing how long they

would be stationed in Atlanta, had sent for their wives and

families. As the hotels and boarding houses were overflowing, they

were building small houses; and they were glad to buy their lumber

from the gracious Mrs. Kennedy, who treated them more politely than

anyone else in town. The Carpetbaggers and Scallawags also, who

were building fine homes and stores and hotels with their new

wealth, found it more pleasant to do business with her than with

the former Confederate soldiers who were courteous but with a

courtesy more formal and cold than outspoken hate.

So, because she was pretty and charming and could appear quite

helpless and forlorn at times, they gladly patronized her lumber

yard and also Frank's store, feeling that they should help a plucky

little woman who apparently had only a shiftless husband to support

her. And Scarlett, watching the business grow, felt that she was

safeguarding not only the present with Yankee money but the future

with Yankee friends.

Keeping her relations with the Yankee officers on the plane she

desired was easier than she expected, for they all seemed to be in

awe of Southern ladies, but Scarlett soon found that their wives

presented a problem she had not anticipated. Contacts with the

Yankee women were not of her seeking. She would have been glad to

avoid them but she could not, for the officers' wives were

determined to meet her. They had an avid curiosity about the South

and Southern women, and Scarlett gave them their first opportunity

to satisfy it. Other Atlanta women would have nothing to do with

them and even refused to bow to them in church, so when business

brought Scarlett to their homes, she was like an answer to prayer.

Often when Scarlett sat in her buggy in front of a Yankee home

talking of uprights and shingles with the man of the house, the

wife came out to join in the conversation or insist that she come