India's eyes, he would see the truth shining there, truth and

reproach and the cold contempt of which the Wilkeses were masters.

Knowing how Ashley valued honor above his life, Scarlett knew he

must be writhing. He, like Scarlett, was forced to shelter behind

Melanie's skirts. While Scarlett realized the necessity for this

and knew that the blame for his false position lay mostly at her

own door, still--still-- Womanlike she would have respected Ashley

more, had he shot Archie and admitted everything to Melanie and the

world. She knew she was being unfair but she was too miserable to

care for such fine points. Some of Rhett's taunting words of

contempt came back to her and she wondered if indeed Ashley had

played the manly part in this mess. And, for the first time, some

of the bright glow which had enveloped him since the first day she

fell in love with him began to fade imperceptibly. The tarnish of

shame and guilt that enveloped her spread to him as well.

Resolutely she tried to fight off this thought but it only made her

cry harder.

"Don't! Don't!" cried Melanie, dropping her tatting and flinging

herself onto the sofa and drawing Scarlett's head down onto her

shoulder. "I shouldn't have talked about it all and distressed you

so. I know how dreadfully you must feel and we'll never mention it

again. No, not to each other or to anybody. It'll be as though it

never happened. But," she added with quiet venom, "I'm going to

show India and Mrs. Elsing what's what. They needn't think they

can spread lies about my husband and my sister-in-law. I'm going

to fix it so neither of them can hold up their heads in Atlanta.

And anybody who believes them or receives them is my enemy."

Scarlett, looking sorrowfully down the long vista of years to come,

knew that she was the cause of a feud that would split the town and

the family for generations.

Melanie was as good as her word. She never again mentioned the

subject to Scarlett or to Ashley. Nor, for that matter, would she

discuss it with anyone. She maintained an air of cool indifference

that could speedily change to icy formality if anyone even dared

hint about the matter. During the weeks that followed her surprise

party, while Rhett was mysteriously absent and the town in a

frenzied state of gossip, excitement and partisanship, she gave no

quarter to Scarlett's detractors, whether they were her old friends

or her blood kin. She did not speak, she acted.

She stuck by Scarlett's side like a cocklebur. She made Scarlett

go to the store and the lumber yard, as usual, every morning and

she went with her. She insisted that Scarlett go driving in the

afternoons, little though Scarlett wished to expose herself to the

eager curious gaze of her fellow townspeople. And Melanie sat in

the carriage beside her. Melanie took her calling with her on

formal afternoons, gently forcing her into parlors in which

Scarlett had not sat for more than two years. And Melanie, with a

fierce "love-me-love-my-dog" look on her face, made converse with

astounded hostesses.

She made Scarlett arrive early on these afternoons and remain until

the last callers had gone, thereby depriving the ladies of the

opportunity for enjoyable group discussion and speculation, a

matter which caused some mild indignation. These calls were an

especial torment to Scarlett but she dared not refuse to go with

Melanie. She hated to sit amid crowds of women who were secretly

wondering if she had been actually taken in adultery. She hated

the knowledge that these women would not have spoken to her, had it

not been that they loved Melanie and did not want to lose her

friendship. But Scarlett knew that, having once received her, they

could not cut her thereafter.