You look a fool and you'll be likely to wear them downtown without remembering to take them out."
"No," said Bonnie, picking up her father's hat, defensively.
"Everything has gone very well here," replied Rhett.
"Bonnie and I have had a nice time and I don't believe her hair has been combed since you left.
Don't suck the feathers, darling, they may be nasty.
Yes, the shingles are fixed and I got a good trade on the mules.
No, there's really no news.
Everything has been quite dull."
Then, as an afterthought, he added: "The honorable Ashley was over here last night.
He wanted to know if I thought you would sell him your mill and the part interest you have in his."
Scarlett, who had been rocking and fanning herself with a turkey tail fan, stopped abruptly.
"Sell?
Where on earth did Ashley get the money?
You know they never have a cent.
Melanie spends it as fast as he makes it."
Rhett shrugged.
"I always thought her a frugal little person, but then I'm not as well informed about the intimate details of the Wilkes family as you seem to be."
That jab seemed in something of Rhett's old style and Scarlett grew annoyed.
"Run away, dear," she said to Bonnie.
"Mother wants to talk to Father."
"No," said Bonnie positively and climbed upon Rhett's lap.
Scarlett frowned at her child and Bonnie scowled back in so complete a resemblance to Gerald O'Hara that Scarlett almost laughed.
"Let her stay," said Rhett comfortably.
"As to where he got the money, it seems it was sent him by someone he nursed through a case of smallpox at Rock Island.
It renews my faith in human nature to know that gratitude still exists."
"Who was it?
Anyone we know?"
"The letter was unsigned and came from Washington.
Ashley was at a loss to know who could have sent it.
But then, one of Ashley's unselfish temperament goes about the world doing so many good deeds that you can't expect him to remember all of them."
Had she not been so surprised at Ashley's windfall, Scarlett would have taken up this gauntlet, although while at Tara she had decided that never again would she permit herself to be involved in any quarrel with Rhett about Ashley.
The ground on which she stood in this matter was entirely too uncertain and, until she knew exactly where she stood with both men, she did not care to be drawn out.
"He wants to buy me out?"
"Yes.
But of course, I told him you wouldn't sell."
"I wish you'd let me mind my own business."
"Well, you know you wouldn't part with the mills.
I told him that he knew as well as I did that you couldn't bear not to have your finger in everybody's pie, and if you sold out to him, then you wouldn't be able to tell him how to mind his own business."
"You dared say that to him about me?"
"Why not?
It's true, isn't it?
I believe he heartily agreed with me but, of course, he was too much of a gentleman to come right out and say so."
"It's a lie!
I will sell them to him!" cried Scarlett angrily.
Until that moment, she had had no idea of parting with the mills.
She had several reasons for wanting to keep them and their monetary value was the least reason.
She could have sold them for large sums any time in the last few years, but she had refused all offers.
The mills were the tangible evidence of what she had done, unaided and against great odds, and she was proud of them and of herself.
Most of all, she did not want to sell them because they were the only path that lay open to Ashley.
If the mills went from her control it would mean that she would seldom see Ashley and probably never see him alone.