Included in his career, as Atlanta heard it.

There was hardly a family in Georgia who could not own to their

sorrow at least one male member or relative who gambled, losing

money, houses, land and slaves. But that was different. A man

could gamble himself to poverty and still be a gentleman, but a

professional gambler could never be anything but an outcast.

Had it not been for the upset conditions due to the war and his

own services to the Confederate government, Rhett Butler would

never have been received in Atlanta. But now, even the most

strait laced felt that patriotism called upon them to be more

broad minded. The more sentimental were inclined to view that the

black sheep of the Butler family had repented of his evil ways and

was making an attempt to atone for his sins. So the ladies felt

in duty bound to stretch a point, especially in the case of so

intrepid a blockader. Everyone knew now that the fate of the

Confederacy rested as much upon the skill of the blockade boats in

eluding the Yankee fleet as it did upon the soldiers at the front.

Rumor had it that Captain Butler was one of the best pilots in the

South and that he was reckless and utterly without nerves. Reared

in Charleston, he knew every inlet, creek, shoal and rock of the

Carolina coast near that port, and he was equally at home in the

waters around Wilmington. He had never lost a boat or even been

forced to dump a cargo. At the onset of the war, he had emerged

from obscurity with enough money to buy a small swift boat and

now, when blockaded goods realized two thousand per cent on each

cargo, he owned four boats. He had good pilots and paid them

well, and they slid out of Charleston and Wilmington on dark

nights, bearing cotton for Nassau, England and Canada. The cotton

mills of England were standing idle and the workers were starving,

and any blockader who could outwit the Yankee fleet could command

his own price in Liverpool. Rhett's boats were singularly lucky

both in taking out cotton for the Confederacy and bringing in the

war materials for which the South was desperate. Yes, the ladies

felt they could forgive and forget a great many things for such a

brave man.

He was a dashing figure and one that people turned to look at. He

spent money freely, rode a wild black stallion, and wore clothes

which were always the height of style and tailoring. The latter

In itself was enough to attract attention to him, for the uniforms

of the soldiers were dingy and worn now and the civilians, even

when turned out in their best, showed skillful patching and

darning. Scarlett thought she had never seen such elegant pants

as he wore, fawn colored, shepherd's plaid, and checked. As for

his waistcoats, they were indescribably handsome, especially the

white watered-silk one with tiny pink rosebuds embroidered on it.

And he wore these garments with a still more elegant air as though

unaware of their glory.

There were few ladies who could resist his charms when he chose to

exert them, and finally even Mrs. Merriwether unbent and invited

him to Sunday dinner.

Maybelle Merriwether was to marry her little Zouave when he got

his next furlough, and she cried every time she thought of it, for

she had set her heart on marrying in a white satin dress and there

was no white satin in the Confederacy. Nor could she borrow a

dress, for the satin wedding dresses of years past had all gone