By this time,Frank could not even get questions to his lips.He sat staring at her,gray faced,the reins slack in his hands.
“She's going to marry Tony Fontaine next month.Oh,I'm so sorry,Frank.So sorry to be the one to tell you.She just got tired of waiting and she was afraid she'd be an old maid.”
Mammy was standing on the front porch when Frank helped Scarlett out of the buggy.She had evidently been standing there for some time,for her head rag was damp and the old shawl clutched tightly about her showed rain spots.Her wrinkled black face was a study in anger and apprehension and her lip was pushed out farther than Scarlett could ever remember.She peered quickly at Frank and,when she saw who it was,her face changed—pleasure,bewilderment and something akin to guilt spreading over it.She waddled forward to Frank with pleased greetings and grinned and curtsied when he shook her hand.
“It sho is good ter see home folks,”she said.“How is you,Mist'Frank?My,ain'you lookin'fine an'gran'!Effen Ah'd knowed Miss Scarlett wuz out wid you,Ah wouldn'worrit so.Ah'd knowed she wuz tekken keer of.Ah come back hyah an'fine she gone an'Ah been as 'stracted as a chicken wid its haid off,thinkin'she runnin'roun'dis town by herseff wid all dese trashy free issue niggers on de street.Huccome you din'tell me you gwine out,honey?An'you wid a cole!”
Scarlett winked slyly at Frank and,for all his distress at the bad news he had just heard,he smiled,knowing she was enjoining silence and making him one in a pleasant conspiracy.
“You run up and fix me some dry clothes,Mammy,”she said.“And some hot tea.”
“Lawd,yo'new dress is plum ruint,”grumbled Mammy.“Ah gwine have a time dryin'it an'brushin'it,so it'll be fit ter be wo'ter de weddin'ternight.”
She went into the house and Scarlett leaned close to Frank and whispered:“Do come to supper tonight.We are so lonesome.And we're going to the wedding afterward.Do be our escort!And,please don't say anything to Aunt Pitty about—about Suellen.It would distress her so much and I can't bear for her to know that my sister—”
“Oh,I won't!I won't!”Frank said hastily,wincing from the very thought.
“You've been so sweet to me today and done me so much good.I feel right brave again.”She squeezed his hand in parting and turned the full battery of her eyes upon him.
Mammy,who was waiting just inside the door,gave her an inscrutable look and followed her,puffing,up the stairs to the bedroom.She was silent while she stripped off the wet clothes and hung them over chairs and tucked Scarlett into bed.When she had brought up a cup of hot tea and a hot brick,rolled in flannel,she looked down at Scarlett and said,with the nearest approach to an apology in her voice Scarlett had ever heard:“Lamb,huccome you din'tell yo'own Mammy whut you wuz upter?Den Ah wouldn'had ter traipse all dis way up hyah ter 'Lanta.Ah is too ole an'too fat fer sech runnin'roun'.”
“What do you mean?”
“Honey,you kain fool me.Ah knows you.An'Ah seed Mist'Frank's face jes'now an'Ah seed yo'face,an'Ah kin read yo'mine lak a pahson read a Bible.An'Ah heerd dat whisperin'you wuz givin'him 'bout Miss Suellen.Effen Ah'd had a notion 'twuz Mist'Frank you wuz affer,Ah'd stayed home whar Ah b'longs.”
“Well,”said Scarlett shortly,snuggling under the blankets and realizing it was useless to try to throw Mammy off the scent,“who did you think it was?”
“Chile,Ah din'know but Ah din'lak de look on yo'face yestiddy.An'Ah 'membered Miss Pittypat writin'Miss Melly dat dat rapscallion Butler man had lots of money an'Ah doan fergit whut Ah hears.But Mist'Frank,he a gempmum even ef he ain'so pretty.”
Scarlett gave her a sharp look and Mammy returned the gaze with calm omniscience.
“Well,what are you going to do about it?Tattle to Suellen?”
“Ah is gwine ter he'p you pleasure Mist'Frank eve'y way Ah knows how,”said Mammy,tucking the covers about Scarlett's neck.
Scarlett lay quietly for a while,as Mammy fussed about the room,relief flooding her that there was no need for words between them.No explanations were asked,no reproaches made.Mammy understood and was silent.In Mammy,Scarlett had found a realist more uncompromising than herself.The mottled wise old eyes saw deeply,saw clearly,with the directness of the savage and the child,undeterred by conscience when danger threatened her pet.Scarlett was her baby and what her baby wanted,even though it belonged to another,Mammy was willing to help her obtain.The rights of Suellen and Frank Kennedy did not even enter her mind,save to cause a grim inward chuckle.Scarlett was in trouble and doing the best she could,and Scarlett was Miss Ellen's child.Mammy rallied to her with never a moment's hesitation.
Scarlett felt the silent reinforcement and,as the hot brick at her feet warmed her,the hope which had flickered faintly on the cold ride home grew into a flame.It swept through her,making her heart pump the blood through her veins in pounding surges.Strength was coming back and a reckless excitement which made her want to laugh aloud.Not beaten yet,she thought exultantly.
“Hand me the mirror,Mammy,”she said.
“Keep yo'shoulders unner dat kivver,”ordered Mammy,passing the hand mirror to her,a smile on her thick lips.
Scarlett looked at herself.
“I look white as a hant,”she said,“and my hair is as wild as a horse's tail.”
“You doan look peart as you mout.”
“Hum....Is it raining very hard?”
“You know it's po'in'.”
“Well,just the same,you've got to go downtown for me.”
“Not in dis rain,Ah ain'.”
“Yes,you are or I'll go myself.”
“Whut you got ter do dat woan wait?Look ter me lak you done nuff fer one day.”
“I want,”said Scarlett,surveying herself carefully in the mirror,“a bottle of cologne water.You can wash my hair and rinse it with cologne.And buy me a jar of quince-seed jelly to make it lie down flat.”
“Ah ain'gwine wash yo'ha'r in dis wedder an'you ain'gwine put no cologne on yo'haid lak a fas'woman needer.Not w'ile Ah got breaf in mah body.”
