She said Mrs. Elsing wouldn’t let it be used if she knew what kind of money it was.
What kind of money!
That’s when I thought I’d swoon!
And I was so upset and anxious to get away, I just said:
‘Oh, yes, indeed, how sweet of you’ or something idiotic, and she smiled and said:
‘That’s right Christian of you’ and shoved this dirty handkerchief into my hand.
Ugh, can you smell the perfume?”
Melanie held out a man’s handkerchief, soiled and highly perfumed, in which some coins were knotted.
“She was saying thank you and something about bringing me some money every week and just then Uncle Peter drove up and saw me!”
Melly collapsed into tears and laid her head on the pillow.
“And when he saw who was with me, he—Scarlett, he HOLLERED at me!
Nobody has ever hollered at me before in my whole life.
And he said,
‘You git in dis hyah cah'ige dis minute!’
Of course, I did, and all the way home he blessed me out and wouldn’t let me explain and said he was going to tell Aunt Pitty.
Scarlett, do go down and beg him not to tell her. Perhaps he will listen to you.
It will kill Auntie if she knows I ever even looked that woman in the face.
Will you?”
“Yes, I will.
But let’s see how much money is in here.
It feels heavy.”
She untied the knot and a handful of gold coins rolled out on the bed.
“Scarlett, there’s fifty dollars here!
And in gold!” cried Melanie, awed, as she counted the bright pieces.
“Tell me, do you think it’s all right to use this kind—well, money made—er—this way for the boys?
Don’t you think that maybe God will understand that she wanted to help and won’t care if it is tainted?
When I think of how many things the hospital needs—”
But Scarlett was not listening.
She was looking at the dirty handkerchief, and humiliation and fury were filling her.
There was a monogram in the corner in which were the initials
“R. K. B.”
In her top drawer was a handkerchief just like this, one that Rhett Butler had lent her only yesterday to wrap about the stems of wild flowers they had picked.
She had planned to return it to him when he came to supper tonight.
So Rhett consorted with that vile Watling creature and gave her money.
That was where the contribution to the hospital came from.
Blockade gold.
And to think that Rhett would have the gall to look a decent woman in the face after being with that creature!
And to think that she could have believed he was in love with her!
This proved he couldn’t be.
Bad women and all they involved were mysterious and revolting matters to her.
She knew that men patronized these women for purposes which no lady should mention—or, if she did mention them, in whispers and by indirection and euphemism.
She had always thought that only common vulgar men visited such women.
Before this moment, it had never occurred to her that nice men-that is, men she met at nice homes and with whom she danced—could possibly do such things.
It opened up an entirely new field of thought and one that was horrifying.
Perhaps all men did this!
It was bad enough that they forced their wives to go through such indecent performances but to actually seek out low women and pay them for such accommodation!
Oh, men were so vile, and Rhett Butler was the worst of them all!
She would take this handkerchief and fling it in his face and show him the door and never, never speak to him again.
But no, of course she couldn’t do that. She could never, never let him know she even realized that bad women existed, much less that he visited them.
A lady could never do that.