@@@@@The servants could only hope that she would
@@@@@The
servants could only hope that she would leave soon, and without
wreaking too much havocAfter breakfast, Eulalie and Pauline took
her
into each of the rooms on the first floor, talking eagerly about the
parties and receptions they had seen in their youth, correcting each
other constantly and arguing about decades-old detailsScarlett
paused for a long time in front of the portrait of three young girls,
trying to see her mother's composed adult features in the
chubby-cheeked five-year-old of the painting
Scarlett had felt isolated in Charleston's web of intermarried
generationsIt was good to be in the house where her mother had
been
born and reared, in a city where she was part of the web"You must
have about a million cousins in Savannah," she said to the auntsCan I meet them? They're my cousins, too
Pauline and Eulalie looked confusedCousins? There were the
Prudhommes, their mother's familyBut only one very old gentleman
was
in Savannah, the widower of their mother's sisterThe rest of the
family had moved to New Orleans many years ago"Everyone in New
Orleans speaks French," Pauline explainedAnd as for the Robillards,
they were the only ones"Pere had lots of cousins in France,
brothers, too-two of themBut he was the only one to come to
America"But we have many, many friends in
Savannah, ScarlettYou can certainly meet themSister and I will be
paying calls and leaving cards today, if Pere doesn't need us to stay
home with"
"I'll have to be back by three," Scarlett said quicklyShe
didn't want to be out when Rhett arrived, nor did she want to be other
than at her bestShe'd need plenty of time to bathe and dress before
the train from Charleston got inBut Rhett didn't come, and when
Scarlett left the carefully chosen bench in the immaculately maintained
formal garden behind the house she felt chilled to the boneShe had
refused her aunts' invitation to accompany them that evening to the
musicale they'd been invited to
If it was going to be anything like the tedious reminiscences of the
old ladies they'd called on that morning, she'd be bored to deathBut
her grandfather's malevolent eyes when he received his family for ten
minutes before supper made her change her mind
Anything would be better than being alone in the house with
Grandfather
Robillard