âtis true. What would you be doing with a husband like Ashley? âTis moonstruck they all are, all the Wilkes.â And then, in a wheedling tone: âWhen I was mentioning the Tarletons the while ago, I wasnât pushing them. Theyâre fine lads, but if itâs Cade Calvert youâre setting your cap after, why, âtis the same with me. The Calverts are good folk, all of them, for all the old man marrying a Yankee. And when Iâm goneâ Whist, darlinâ, listen to me! Iâll leave Tara to you and Cadeââ
âI wouldnât have Cade on a silver tray,â cried Scarlettin fury. âAnd I wish youâd quit pushing him at me! I donât want Tara or any old plantation. Plantations donât amount to anything whenââ
She was going to say âwhen you havenât the man you want,â but Gerald, incensed by the cavalier way in which she treated his proffered gift, the thing which, next to Ellen, he loved best in the whole world, uttered a roar.
âDo you stand there, Scarlett OâHara, and tell me that Taraâthat landâdoesnât amount to anything?â
Scarlett nodded obstinately. Her heart was too sore to care whether or not she put her father in a temper.
âLand is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything,â he shouted, his thick, short arms making wide gestures of indignation, âfor âtis the only thing in this world that lasts, and donât you be forgetting it! âTis the only thing worth working for, worth fighting forâworth dying for.â
âOh, Pa,â she said disgustedly, âyou talk like an Irishman!â
âHave I ever been ashamed of it? No, âtis proud I am. And donât be forgetting that you are half Irish, Miss! And to anyone with a drop of Irish blood in them the land they live on is like their mother. âTis ashamed of you I am this minute. I offer you the most beautiful land in the worldâsaving County Meath in the Old Countryâand what do you do? You sniff!â
Gerald had begun to work himself up into a pleasurable shouting rage when something in Scarlettâs woebegone face stopped him.
âBut there, youâre young. âTwill come to you, this love of land. Thereâs no getting away from it, if youâre Irish. Youâre just a child and bothered about your beaux. When youâre older, youâll be seeing how âtisâ¦. Now, do you be making up your mind about Cade or the twins orone of Evan Munroeâs young bucks, and see how fine I turn you out!â
âOh, Pa!â
By this time, Gerald was thoroughly tired of the conversation and thoroughly annoyed that the problem should be upon his shoulders. He felt aggrieved, moreover, that Scarlett should still look desolate after being offered the best of the County boys and Tara, too. Gerald liked his gifts to be received with clapping of hands and kisses.
âNow, none of your pouts, Miss. It doesnât matter who you marry, as long as he thinks like you and is a gentleman and a Southerner and prideful. For a woman, love comes after marriage.â
âOh, Pa, thatâs such an Old Country notion!â
âAnd a good notion it is! All this American business of running around marrying for love, like servants, like Yankees! The best marriages are when the parents choose for the girl. For how can a silly piece like yourself tell a good man from a scoundrel? Now, look at the Wilkes. Whatâs kept them prideful and strong all these generations? Why, marrying the likes of themselves, marrying the cousins their family always expects them to marry.â
âOh,â cried Scarlett, fresh pain striking her as Geraldâs words brought home the terrible inevitability of the truth. Gerald looked at her bowed head and shuffled his feet uneasily.
âItâs not crying you are?â he questioned, fumbling clumsily at her chin, trying to