India's face went white but her head was high.

"I retract nothing," she said briefly. But her mind was seething.

"Jealous, am I?" she thought. With the memory of Stuart Tarleton

and of Honey and Charles, didn't she have good reason to be jealous

of Scarlett? Didn't she have good reason to hate her, especially

now that she had a suspicion that Scarlett had somehow entangled

Ashley in her web? She thought: "There's plenty I could tell you

about Ashley and your precious Scarlett." India was torn between

the desire to shield Ashley by her silence and to extricate him by

telling all her suspicions to Melanie and the whole world. That

would force Scarlett to release whatever hold she had on Ashley.

But this was not the time. She had nothing definite, only

suspicions.

"I retract nothing," she repeated.

"Then it is fortunate that you are no longer living under my roof,"

said Melanie and her words were cold.

India leaped to her feet, red flooding her sallow face.

"Melanie, you--my sister-in-law--you aren't going to quarrel with

me over that fast piece--"

"Scarlett is my sister-in-law, too," said Melanie, meeting India's

eyes squarely as though they were strangers. "And dearer to me

than any blood sister could ever be. If you are so forgetful of my

favors at her hands, I am not. She stayed with me through the

whole siege when she could have gone home, when even Aunt Pitty had

run away to Macon. She brought my baby for me when the Yankees

were almost in Atlanta and she burdened herself with me and Beau

all that dreadful trip to Tara when she could have left me here in

a hospital for the Yankees to get me. And she nursed and fed me,

even if she was tired and even if she went hungry. Because I was

sick and weak, I had the best mattress at Tara. When I could walk,

I had the only whole pair of shoes. You can forget those things

she did for me, India, but I cannot. And when Ashley came home,

sick, discouraged, without a home, without a cent in his pockets,

she took him in like a sister. And when we thought we would have

to go North and it was breaking our hearts to leave Georgia,

Scarlett stepped in and gave him the mill to run. And Captain

Butler saved Ashley's life out of the kindness of his heart.

Certainly Ashley had no claim on him! And I am grateful, grateful

to Scarlett and to Captain Butler. But you, India! How can you

forget the favors Scarlett has done me and Ashley? How can you

hold your brother's life so cheap as to cast slurs on the man who

saved him? If you went down on your knees to Captain Butler and

Scarlett, it would not be enough."

"Now, Melly," began Mrs. Merriwether briskly, for she had recovered

her composure, "that's no way to talk to India."

"I heard what you said about Scarlett too," cried Melanie, swinging

on the stout old lady with the air of a duelist who, having

withdrawn a blade from one prostrate opponent, turns hungrily

toward another. "And you too, Mrs. Elsing. What you think of her

In your own petty minds, I do not care, for that is your business.

But what you say about her in my own house or in my own hearing,

ever, is my business. But how can you even think such dreadful

things, much less say them? Are your men so cheap to you that you

would rather see them dead than alive? Have you no gratitude to

the man who saved them and saved them at risk of his own life? The

Yankees might easily have thought him a member of the Klan if the

whole truth had come out! They might have hanged him. But he

risked himself for your men. For your father-in-law, Mrs.

Merriwether, and your son-in-law and your two nephews, too. And

your brother, Mrs. Bonnell, and your son and son-in-law, Mrs.

Elsing. Ingrates, that's what you are! I ask an apology from all

of you."

Mrs. Elsing was on her feet cramming her sewing into her box, her

mouth set.

"If anyone had ever told me that you could be so ill bred, Melly--

No, I will not apologize. India is right. Scarlett is a flighty,

fast bit of baggage. I can't forget how she acted during the war.

And I can't forget how poor white trashy she's acted since she got

a little money--"

"What you can't forget," cut in Melanie, clenching her small fists

against her sides, "is that she demoted Hugh because he wasn't

smart enough to run her mill."

"Melly!" moaned a chorus of voices.

Mrs. Elsing's head jerked up and she started toward the door. With

her hand on the knob of the front door, she stopped and turned.

"Melly," she said and her voice softened, "honey, this breaks my

heart. I was your mother's best friend and I helped Dr. Meade

bring you into this world and I've loved you like you were mine.