To this end, Ellen and Mammy bent their efforts, and as Scarlett grew older she became an apt pupil in this subject, even though she learned little else. Despite a succession of governesses and two years at the nearby Fayetteville Female Academy, her education was sketchy, but no girl in the County danced more gracefully than she.She knew how to smile so that her dimples leaped, how to walk pigeon-toed so that her wide hoop skirts swayed entrancingly, how to look up into a man's face and then drop her eyes and bat the lids rapidly so that she seemed a-tremble with gentle emotion.Most of all she learned how to conceal from men a sharp intelligence beneath a face as sweet and bland as a baby's.
Ellen, by soft-voiced admonition, and Mammy, by constant carping, labored to inculcate in her the qualities that would make her truly desirable as a wife.
“You must be more gentle, dear, more sedate,”Ellen told her daughter.“You must not interrupt gentlemen when they are speaking, even if you do think you know more about matters than they do. Gentlemen do not like forward girls.”
“Young misses whut frowns an'pushes out dey chins an'says‘Ah will'an'‘Ah woan'mos’gener’ly doan ketch husbands,”prophesied Mammy gloomily.“Young misses should cas’down dey eyes an’say,‘Well, suh, Ah mout’an’‘Jes’as you say, suh.’“
Between them, they taught her all that a gentlewoman should know, but she learned only the outward signs of gentility. The inner grace from whichthese signs should spring, she never learned nor did she see any reason for learning it.Appearances were enough, for the appearances of ladyhood won her popularity and that was all she wanted.Gerald bragged that she was the belle of five counties, and with some truth, for she had received proposals from nearly all the young men in the neighborhood and many from places as far away as Atlanta and Savannah.
At sixteen, thanks to Mammy and Ellen, she looked sweet, charming and giddy, but she was, in reality, self-willed, vain and obstinate. She had the easily stirred passions of her Irish father and nothing except the thinnest veneer of her mother's unselfish and forbearing nature.Ellen never fully realized that it was only a veneer, for Scarlett always showed her best face to her mother, concealing her escapades, curbing her temper and appearing as sweet-natured as she could in Ellen's presence, for her mother could shame her to tears with a reproachful glance.
But Mammy was under no illusions about her and was constantly alert for breaks in the veneer. Mammy's eyes were sharper than Ellen's, and Scarlett could never recall in all her life having fooled Mammy for long.
It was not that these two loving mentors deplored Scarlett's high spirits, vivacity and charm. These were traits of which Southern women were proud.It was Gerald's headstrong and impetuous nature in her that gave them concern, and they sometimes feared they would not be able to conceal her damaging qualities until she had made a good match.But Scarlett intended to marry—and marry Ashley—and she was willing to appear demure, pliable and scatterbrained, if those were the qualities that attracted men.Just why men should be this way, she did not know.She only knew that such methods worked.It never interested her enough to try to think out the reason for it, for she knew nothing of the inner workings of any human being's mind, not even her own.She knew only that if she did or said thus-and-so, men would unerringly respond with the complementary thus-and-so.It was like a mathematical formula and no more difficult, for mathematics was the one subject that had come easy to Scarlett in her schooldays.
If she knew little about men's minds, she knew even less about the minds of women, for they interested her less. She had never had a girl friend, and shenever felt any lack on that account.To her, all women, including her two sisters, were natural enemies in pursuit of the same prey—man.
All women with the one exception of her mother.
Ellen O'Hara was different, and Scarlett regarded her as something holy and apart from all the rest of humankind. When Scarlett was a child, she had confused her mother with the Virgin Mary, and now that she was older she saw no reason for changing her opinion.To her, Ellen represented the utter security that only Heaven or a mother can give.She knew that her mother was the embodiment of justice, truth, loving tenderness and profound wisdom—a great lady.
Scarlett wanted very much to be like her mother. The only difficulty was that by being just and truthful and tender and unselfish, one missed most of the joys of life, and certainly many beaux.And life was too short to miss such pleasant things.Some day when she was married to Ashley and old, some day when she had time for it, she intended to be like Ellen.But, until then…….
Chapter 4
That night at supper, Scarlett went through the motions of presidingover the table in her mother's absence, but her mind was in a ferment over the dreadful news she had heard about Ashley and Melanie. Desperately she longed for her mother's return from the Slatterys',for, without her, she felt lost and alone.What right had the Slatterys and their everlasting sickness to take Ellen away from home just at this time when she, Scarlett, needed her so much?
Throughout the dismal meal, Gerald's booming voice battered against her ears until she thought she could endure it no longer. He had forgotten completely about his conversation with her that afternoon and was carrying on a monologue about the latest news from Fort Sumter, which he punctuated by hammering his fist on the table and waving his arms in the air.Gerald made a habit of dominating the conversation at mealtimes, and usually, Scarlett, occupied with her own thoughts, scarcely heard him;but tonight she could not shut out his voice, no matter how much she strained to listen for the sound of carriage wheels that would herald Ellen's return.