What Tommy said was true, she thought, running over in her mind the men she had approached and the ones she intended to approach.
They were all busy, busy at something, working hard, working harder than they would have dreamed possible in the days before the war.
They weren't doing what they wanted to do perhaps, or what was easiest to do, or what they had been reared to do, but they were doing something.
Times were too hard for men to be choosy.
And if they were sorrowing for lost hopes, longing for lost ways of living, no one knew it but they.
They were fighting a new war, a harder war than the one before.
And they were caring about life again, caring with the same urgency and the same violence that animated them before the war had cut their lives in two.
"Scarlett," said Tommy awkwardly,
"I do hate to ask a favor of you, after being impudent to you, but I'm going to ask it just the same.
Maybe it would help you anyway.
My brother-in-law, Hugh Elsing, isn't doing any too well peddling kindling wood.
Everybody except the Yankees goes out and collects his own kindling wood.
And I know things are mighty hard with the whole Elsing family.
I--I do what I can, but you see I've got Fanny to support, and then, too, I've got my mother and two widowed sisters down in Sparta to look after.
Hugh is nice, and you wanted a nice man, and he's from nice folks, as you know, and he's honest."
"But--well, Hugh hasn't got much gumption or else he'd make a success of his kindling."
Tommy shrugged.
"You've got a hard way of looking at things, Scarlett," he said.
"But you think Hugh over.
You could go far and do worse.
I think his honesty and his willingness will outweigh his lack of gumption."
Scarlett did not answer, for she did not want to be too rude.
But to her mind there were few, if any, qualities that out-weighed gumption.
After she had unsuccessfully canvassed the town and refused the importuning of many eager Carpetbaggers, she finally decided to take Tommy's suggestion and ask Hugh Elsing.
He had been a dashing and resourceful officer during the war, but two severe wounds and four years of fighting seemed to have drained him of all his resourcefulness, leaving him to face the rigors of peace as bewildered as a child.
There was a lost-dog look in his eyes these days as he went about peddling his firewood, and he was not at all the kind of man she had hoped to get.
"He's stupid," she thought.
"He doesn't know a thing about business and I'll bet he can't add two and two.
And I doubt if he'll ever learn.
But, at least, he's honest and won't swindle me."
Scarlett had little use these days for honesty in herself, but the less she valued it in herself the more she was beginning to value it in others.
"It's a pity Johnnie Gallegher is tied up with Tommy Wellburn on that construction work," she thought.
"He's just the kind of man I want.
He's hard as nails and slick as a snake, but he'd be honest if it paid him to be honest.
I understand him and he understands me and we could do business together very well.
Maybe I can get him when the hotel is finished and till then I'll have to make out on Hugh and Mr. Johnson.
If I put Hugh in charge of the new mill and leave Mr. Johnson at the old one, I can stay in town and see to the selling while they handle the milling and hauling.
Until I can get Johnnie I'll have to risk Mr. Johnson robbing me if I stay in town all the time.
If only he wasn't a thief!
I believe I'll build a lumber yard on half that lot Charles left me.
If only Frank didn't holler so loud about me building a saloon on the other half!
Well, I shall build the saloon just as soon as I get enough money ahead, no matter how he takes on.
If only Frank wasn't so thin skinned.
Oh, God, if only I wasn't going to have a baby at this of all times!
In a little while I'll be so big I can't go out.
Oh, God, if only I wasn't going to have a baby!
And oh, God, if the damned Yankees will only let me alone!
If--"
If!
If!