You can see what she's come to.
Poor white!
And a heap lower than the man she married.
Look at the McRae family.
Flat to the ground, helpless, don't know what to do, don't know how to do anything.
Won't even try.
They spend their time whining about the good old days.
And look at--well, look at nearly anybody in this County except my Alex and my Sally and you and Jim Tarleton and his girls and some others.
The rest have gone under because they didn't have any sap in them, because they didn't have the gumption to rise up again.
There never was anything to those folks but money and darkies, and now that the money and darkies are gone, those folks will be Cracker in another generation."
"You forgot the Wilkes."
"No, I didn't forget them.
I just thought I'd be polite and not mention them, seeing that Ashley's a guest under this roof.
But seeing as how you've brought up their names--look at them!
There's India who from all I hear is a dried-up old maid already, giving herself all kinds of widowed airs because Stu Tarleton was killed and not making any effort to forget him and try to catch another man.
Of course, she's old but she could catch some widower with a big family if she tried.
And poor Honey was always a man-crazy fool with no more sense than a guinea hen.
And as for Ashley, look at him!"
"Ashley is a very fine man," began Scarlett hotly.
"I never said he wasn't but he's as helpless as a turtle on his back.
If the Wilkes family pulls through these hard times, it'll be Melly who pulls them through.
Not Ashley."
"Melly!
Lord, Grandma!
What are you talking about?
I've lived with Melly long enough to know she's sickly and scared and hasn't the gumption to say Boo to a goose."
"Now why on earth should anyone want to say Boo to a goose?
It always sounded like a waste of time to me.
She might not say Boo to a goose but she'd say Boo to the world or the Yankee government or anything else that threatened her precious Ashley or her boy or her notions of gentility.
Her way isn't your way, Scarlett, or my way.
It's the way your mother would have acted if she'd lived.
Melly puts me in mind of your mother when she was young. . . . And maybe she'll pull the Wilkes family through."
"Oh, Melly's a well-meaning little ninny.
But you are very unjust to Ashley.
He's--"
"Oh, foot!
Ashley was bred to read books and nothing else.
That doesn't help a man pull himself out of a tough fix, like we're all in now.
From what I hear, he's the worst plow hand in the County!
Now you just compare him with my Alex!
Before the war, Alex was the most worthless dandy in the world and he never had a thought beyond a new cravat and getting drunk and shooting somebody and chasing girls who were no better than they should be.
But look at him now!
He learned farming because he had to learn.
He'd have starved and so would all of us.
Now he raises the best cotton in the County--yes, Miss!
It's a heap better than Tara cotton!--and he knows what to do with hogs and chickens.
Ha!
He's a fine boy for all his bad temper.
He knows how to bide his time and change with changing ways and when all this Reconstruction misery is over, you're going to see my Alex as rich a man as his father and his grandfather were.
But Ashley--"