It was as though he bore an impersonal contempt for everyone and

everything in the South, the Confederacy in particular, and took

no pains to conceal it. It was his remarks about the Confederacy

that made Atlanta look at him first in bewilderment, then coolly

and then with hot rage. Even before 1862 passed into 1863, men

were bowing to him with studied frigidity and women beginning to

draw their daughters to their sides when he appeared at a

gathering.

He seemed to take pleasure not only in affronting the sincere and

red-hot loyalties of Atlanta but in presenting himself in the

worst possible light. When well-meaning people complimented him

on his bravery in running the blockade, he blandly replied that he

was always frightened when in danger, as frightened as were the

brave boys at the front. Everyone knew there had never been a

cowardly Confederate soldier and they found this statement

peculiarly irritating. He always referred to the soldiers as "our

brave boys" and "our heroes in gray" and did it in such a way as

to convey the utmost in insult. When daring young ladies, hoping

for a flirtation, thanked him for being one of the heroes who

fought for them, he bowed and declared that such was not the case,

for he would do the same thing for Yankee women if the same amount

of money were involved.

Since Scarlett's first meeting with him in Atlanta on the night of

the bazaar, he had talked with her in this manner, but now there

was a thinly veiled note of mockery in his conversations with

everyone. When praised for his services to the Confederacy, he

unfailingly replied that blockading was a business with him. If

he could make as much money out of government contracts, he would

say, picking out with his eyes those who had government contracts,

then he would certainly abandon the hazards of blockading and take

to selling shoddy cloth, sanded sugar, spoiled flour and rotten

leather to the Confederacy.

Most of his remarks were unanswerable, which made them all the

worse. There had already been minor scandals about those holding

government contracts. Letters from men at the front complained

constantly of shoes that wore out in a week, gunpowder that would

not ignite, harness that snapped at any strain, meat that was

rotten and flour that was full of weevils. Atlanta people tried

to think that the men who sold such stuff to the government must

be contract holders from Alabama or Virginia or Tennessee, and not

Georgians. For did not the Georgia contract holders include men

from the very best families? Were they not the first to

contribute to the hospital funds and to the aid of soldiers'

orphans? Were they not the first to cheer at "Dixie" and the most

rampant seekers, in oratory at least, for Yankee blood? The full

tide of fury against those profiteering on government contracts

had not yet risen, and Rhett's words were taken merely as evidence

of his own bad breeding.

He not only affronted the town with insinuations of venality on

the part of men in high places and slurs on the courage of the men