Gone with the Wind Page #2

ASHLEY:

We'll keep her here, won't we, Scarlett?

SCARLETT:

Oh, we'll just have to make the biggest fuss over

her, won't we, Ashley? And if there's anybody who

knows how to give a girl a good time, it's Ashley.

Though I expect our good times must seem terribly

silly to you because you're so serious.

MELANIE:

Oh, Scarlett. You have so much life. I've always

admired you so, I wish I could be more like you.

SCARLETT:

You mustn't flatter me, Melanie, and say things you

don't mean.

ASHLEY:

Nobody could accuse Melanie of being insincere. Could

they, my dear?

SCARLETT:

Oh, well then, she's not like you. Is she, Ashley?

Ashley never means a word he says to any girl. Oh,

why Charles Hamilton, you handsome old thing, you.

CHARLES HAMILTON

But, oh. Miss O'Hara...

SCARLETT:

Do you think that was kind to bring your good-looking

brother down here just to break my poor, simple

country-girl's heart?

(India and Sue Ellen are watching Scarlett in

distance)

ELLEN:

Look at Scarlett, she's never even noticed Charles

before, now just because he's your beau, she's after

him like a hornet!

SCARLETT:

Charles Hamilton, I want to eat barbecue with you.

And mind you don't go philandering with any other

girl because I'm mighty jealous.

CHARLES HAMILTON

I won't, Miss O'Hara. I couldn't!

SCARLETT:

I do declare, Frank Kelly, you don't look dashing

with that new set of whiskers.

FRANK:

Oh, thank you, thank you, Miss Scarlett.

SCARLETT:

You know Charles Hamilton and Ray Kelvert asked me to

eat barbecue with them, but I told them I couldn't

because I'd promised you.

INDIA:

You needn't be so amused, look at her. She's after

your beau now.

FRANK:

Oh, that's mighty flattering of you, Miss Scarlett.

I'll see what I can do, Miss Scarlett.

KATHLEEN:

What's your sister so mad about, Scarlett, you

sparking her beau?

SCARLETT:

As if I couldn't get a better beau than that old maid

in britches. Brent and Stew, do talk, you handsome

old thing, you...oh, no, you're not, I don't mean to

say that I'm mad at you.

BRENT:

Why Scarlett honey...

SCARLETT:

You haven't been near me all day and I wore this old

dress just because I thought you liked it. I was

counting on eating barbecue with you two.

BRENT:

Well, you are, Scarlett...

STEW:

Of course you are, honey.

SCARLETT:

Oh, I never can make up my mind which of you two's

handsomer. I was awake all last night trying to

figure it out. Kathleen, who's that?

KATHLEEN:

Who?

SCARLETT:

That man looking at us and smiling. A nasty dog.

KATHLEEN:

My dear, don't you know? That's Rhett Butler. He's

from Charleston. He has the most terrible reputation.

SCARLETT:

He looks as if, as if he knows what I looked like

without my shimmy.

KATHLEEN:

How? But my dear, he isn't received. He's had to

spend most of his time up North because his folks in

Charleston won't even speak to him. He was expelled

from West Point, he's so fast. And then there's that

business about that girl he wouldn't marry...

SCARLETT:

Tell, tell...

KATHLEEN:

Well, he took her out in a buggy riding in the late

afternoon without a chaperone and then, and then he

refused to marry her!

SCARLETT:

(whisper)...

KATHLEEN:

No, but she was ruined just the same.

(Ashley and Melanie, on the balcony open to the

garden.)

MELANIE:

Ashley..

ASHLEY:

Happy?

MELANIE:

So happy.

ASHLEY:

You seem to belong here. As if it had all been

imagined for you.

MELANIE:

I like to feel that I belong to the things you love.

ASHLEY:

You love Twelve Oaks as I do.

MELANIE:

Yes, Ashley. I love it as, as more than a house. It's

a whole world that wants only to be graceful and

beautiful.

ASHLEY:

And so unaware that it may not last, forever.

MELANIE:

You're afraid of what may happen when the war conies,

aren't you? Well, we don't have to be afraid. For us.

No war can come into our world Ashley. Whatever

comes, I'll love you, just as I do now. Until I die.

Chapter 2 Scarlett Meeting Butler

(Noon time, the gentlemen are gathering in the

downstairs hall, talking about the war.)

Mr. O'HARA

We've borne enough insults from the "meddling

Yankees. It's time we made them understand we keep

our slaves with or without their approval. Who's to

stop them right from the state of Georgia to secede

from the Union.

MAN:

That's right.

Mr. O'HARA

The South must assert ourselves by force of arms.

After we fired on the Yankee rascals at Fort Sumter,

we've got to fight. There's no other way.

MAN1

Fight, that's right, fight!

MAN2

Let the Yankee's be the ones to ask for peace.

Mr. O'HARA

The situation is very simple. The Yankees can't fight

and we can.

CHORUS:

You're right!

MANS:

That's what I'll think! They'll just turn and run

every time.

MAN1

One Southerner can lick twenty Yankees.

MAN2

We'll finish them in one battle. Gentlemen can always

fight better than rattle.

MANS:

Yes, gentlemen always fight better than rattle.

Mr. O'HARA

And what does the captain of our troop say?

ASHLEY:

Well, gentlemen...if Georgia fights, I go with her.

But like my father I hope that the Yankees let us

leave the Union in peace.

MAN1

But Ashley...

MAN2

Ashley, they've insulted us.

MANS:

You can't mean that you don't want war.

ASHLEY:

Most of the miseries of the world were caused by

wars. And when the wars were over, no one ever knew

what they were about.

Mr. O'HARA

Now gentlemen, Mr. Butler has been up North I hear.

Don't you agree with us, Mr. Butler?

RHETT BUTLER:

I think it's hard winning a war with words,

gentlemen.

CHARLES:

What do you mean, sir?

RHETT:

I mean, Mr. Hamilton, there's not a cannon factory in

the whole South.

MAN:

What difference does that make, sir, to a gentleman?

RHETT:

I'm afraid it's going to make a great deal of

difference to a great many gentlemen, sir.

CHARLES:

Are you hinting, Mr. Butler, that the Yankees can

lick us?

RHETT:

No, I'm not hinting. I'm saying very plainly that the

Yankees are better equipped than we. They've got

factories, shipyards, coal-mines... and a fleet to

bottle up our harbors and starve us to death. All

we've got is cotton, and slaves and ...arrogance.

MAN:

That's treacherous!

CHARLES:

I refuse to listen to any renegade talk!

RHETT:

Well, I'm sorry if the truth offends you.

CHARLES:

Apologies aren't enough sir. I hear you were turned

out of West Point Mr. Rhett Butler. And that you

aren't received in an decent family in Charleston.

Not even

your own.

RHETT:

I apologize again for all my shortcomings. Mr.

Wilkes, Perhaps you won't mind if I walk about and

look ver your place. I seem to be spoiling

everybody's brandy and cigars and...dreams of

victory.

(Rhett Butler leaves the hall.)

MAN:

Well, that's just about what you could expect from

somebody like Rhett Butler.

Mr. O'HARA

You did everything but call him out.

CHARLES:

He refused to fight.

ASHLEY:

Not quite that Charles. He just refused to take

advantage of you.

CHARLES:

Take advantage of me?

ASHLEY:

Yes, he's one of the best shots the country, he's

proved a number of times, against steadier hands and

cooler heads than yours.

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