I'm a terrible goose and you know it."

"Well, I don't see that what that smelly old hill-billy thinks is

of any importance," said Scarlett abruptly. The very thought of

how Archie had sat in judgment upon her about the convicts always

enraged her. "I have to go now. I've got to go get dinner and

then go by the store and pay off the clerks and go by the lumber

yard and pay the drivers and Hugh Elsing."

"Oh, are you going to the lumber yard?" asked Melanie. "Ashley is

coming in to the yard in the late afternoon to see Hugh. Can you

possibly hold him there till five o'clock? If he comes home

earlier he'll be sure to catch us finishing up a cake or something

and then he won't be surprised at all."

Scarlett smiled inwardly, good temper restored.

"Yes, I'll hold him," she said.

As she spoke, India's pale lashless eyes met hers piercingly. She

always looks at me so oddly when I speak of Ashley, thought

Scarlett.

"Well, hold him there as long as you can after five o'clock," said

Melanie. "And then India will drive down and pick him up. . . .

Scarlett, do come early tonight. I don't want you to miss a minute

of the reception."

As Scarlett rode home she thought sullenly: "She doesn't want me

to miss a minute of the reception, eh? Well then, why didn't she

Invite me to receive with her and India and Aunt Pitty?"

Generally, Scarlett would not have cared whether she received at

Melly's piddling parties or not. But this was the largest party

Melanie had ever given and Ashley's birthday party too, and

Scarlett longed to stand by Ashley's side and receive with him.

But she knew why she had not been invited to receive. Even had she

not known it, Rhett's comment on the subject had been frank enough.

"A Scallawag receive when all the prominent ex-Confederates and

Democrats are going to be there? Your notions are as enchanting as

they are muddle headed. It's only because of Miss Melly's loyalty

that you are invited at all."

Scarlett dressed with more than usual care that afternoon for her

trip to the store and the lumber yard, wearing the new dull-green

changeable taffeta frock that looked lilac in some lights and the

new pale-green bonnet, circled about with dark-green plumes. If

only Rhett would let her cut bangs and frizzle them on her

forehead, how much better this bonnet would look! But he had

declared that he would shave her whole head if she banged her

forelocks. And these days he acted so atrociously he really might

do it.

It was a lovely afternoon, sunny but not too hot, bright but not

glaring, and the warm breeze that rustled the trees along Peachtree

Street made the plumes on Scarlett's bonnet dance. Her heart

danced too, as always when she was going to see Ashley. Perhaps,

if she paid off the team drivers and Hugh early, they would go home

and leave her and Ashley alone in the square little office in the

middle of the lumber yard. Chances to see Ashley alone were all

too infrequent these days. And to think that Melanie had asked her

to hold him! That was funny!

Her heart was merry when she reached the store, and she paid off

Willie and the other counter boys without even asking what the

day's business had been. It was Saturday, the biggest day of the

week for the store, for all the farmers came to town to shop that

day, but she asked no questions.

Along the way to the lumber yard she stopped a dozen times to speak

with Carpetbagger ladies in splendid equipages--not so splendid as

her own, she thought with pleasure--and with many men who came

through the red dust of the street to stand hat in hand and

compliment her. It was a beautiful afternoon, she was happy, she

looked pretty and her progress was a royal one. Because of these

delays she arrived at the lumber yard later than she intended and

found Hugh and the team drivers sitting on a low pile of lumber

waiting for her.

"Is Ashley here?"

"Yes, he's in the office," said Hugh, the habitually worried

expression leaving his face at the sight of her happy, dancing

eyes. "He's trying to--I mean, he's going over the books."

"Oh, he needn't bother about that today," she said and then

lowering her voice: "Melly sent me down to keep him here till they

get the house straight for the reception tonight."

Hugh smiled for he was going to the reception. He liked parties

and he guessed Scarlett did too from the way she looked this

afternoon. She paid off the teamsters and Hugh and, abruptly

leaving them, walked toward the office, showing plainly by her

manner that she did not care to be accompanied. Ashley met her at

the door and stood in the afternoon sunshine, his hair bright and

on his lips a little smile that was almost a grin.

"Why, Scarlett, what are you doing downtown this time of the day?

Why aren't you out at my house helping Melly get ready for the

surprise party?"

"Why, Ashley Wilkes!" she cried indignantly. "You weren't supposed

to know a thing about it. Melly will be so disappointed if you

aren't surprised."

"Oh, I won't let on. I'll be the most surprised man in Atlanta,"

said Ashley, his eyes laughing.

"Now, who was mean enough to tell you?"

"Practically every man Melly invited. General Gordon was the

first. He said it had been his experience that when women gave

surprise parties they usually gave them on the very nights men had

decided to polish and clean all the guns in the house. And then

Grandpa Merriwether warned me. He said Mrs. Merriwether gave him a

surprise party once and she was the most surprised person there,

because Grandpa had been treating his rheumatism, on the sly, with

a bottle of whisky and he was too drunk to get out of bed and--oh,

every man who's ever had a surprise party given him told me."

"The mean things!" cried Scarlett but she had to smile.

He looked like the old Ashley she knew at twelve Oaks when he

smiled like this. And he smiled so seldom these days. The air was

so soft, the sun so gentle, Ashley's face so gay, his talk so

unconstrained that her heart leaped with happiness. It swelled in

her bosom until it positively ached with pleasure, ached as with a

burden of joyful, hot, unshed tears. Suddenly she felt sixteen

again and happy, a little breathless and excited. She had a mad