A MOURNFUL PARTINGG

          At Melanie's house, the mood was silent as Ashley carried a sobbing Beau back to bed. "You may come in now,Scarlett," said Dr. Meade as he led Scareltt into Melanie's room. Before letting her go, he said, "Miss Melly's going to die in peace. I won't have you easing your conscience telling her things that make no difference now! You understand?"

Scarlett nodded and pulled away from Dr. Meade and into Melanie's room.

She sat by Melly's bed and Melly spoke to her faintly. "Promise me? Look after my little son. I gave him to you once before, remember? The day he was born?"

"Oh, Melly, don't talk this way! I know you'll get well!"

"Promise me...College...?"

"Yes!Yes! And Europe. And a pony. Whatever he wants! Melly! Do try..."

"Ashley....Look after him for me. Just as you looked after me for him...Look after him, but never let him know"

"Good night," said Scarlett.

Very faintly, Melanie said, "Captain Butler. Be kind to him....he loves you so."

"Yes, Melly," sobbed Scarlett.

"Good-bye," she whispered and Scarlett left the room.

Scarlett ran to Ashley's arms crying, "Hold me-I'm so frightened!"

Rhett looked at them with distate and left the room abruptly.

"Oh, Scarlett! What can I do? I can't live without her! I can't! Everything I ever had is-is going with her," he cried.

"Oh, Ashley, you should have told me years ago that you loved her, not me, and not left me dangling with you talk of honor. But you had to wait til lnow-now when melly's dying to show me I could never mean anything more to tou than...than this Watling women does to Rhett!" she said with a bewildered sense of reality. "And I've loved something that-that doesn't really exist. Somehow I don't care. Somehow it doens't matter. It doesn't matter one bit."

Dr. Meade called Asley in and from the room came a cry of anguish, "Melly! Melly!"

Scarlett looked around but couldn't find Rhett. She ran through the open door and down Peachtree Street crying his name,

running through the mist as she had had in her dreams, except now she knew what she was looking for.

When she reached the house, she ran up the stairs and into Rhett's room where he was sitting in a chair. When Scarlett told him that Melanie was dead, he said, "Well...God rest her. She was the only completely kind person I knew...A great lady...a very great lady." Then he turned to Scarlett and said, "So she's dead? That makes it nice for you, doesn't it?"

Tears came into Scarlett's eyes and she said, "Oh, how can you say such a thing? You know how I loved her, really!"

"No, I don't know that I do. But at least it's to your credit that you could appreciate her at the end," he said.

Scarlett told Rhett that his last words were about him and to tell her to take care of Ashley. He stood up and said, "It's convenient to have the first wife's permission, isn't it?"

He started packing and said, "I'm leaving you, my dear....All you need now is a divorce-and your dreams of Ashley can come true."

"Oh, no! No! You're wrong! Terribly wrong! I don't want a divorce! Oh Rhett, when I knew tonight that I loved you, I ran home to tell you, darling..."

"Scarlett, please don't go on with this. Leave us some dignity to remember out of our marriage. Spare us this last," he said.

"Rhett I must have loved you for years, only I was such a stupid fool I didn't know it.  Please believe! You must care! Melanie said you did!"

"I believe you. But what about Ashley Wilkes?"

"I never really lved Ashley," she said in vain.

When Scarlett listed all the times that she had loved him, he said, "It seems we've been at cross purposes, doesn't it? But it's no use now. As long as there was Bonnie there was a chance we might be happy. I liked to think that Bonnie was you, a little girl again, before the war and poverty had done things to you. She was so like you, and I could pet and spoil her...as I wanted to spoil you...When she went, she took everything."

Rhett finished packing and took the bag. "Oh, Rhett! Rhett, please don't say that. I'm so sorry-I so sorry for everything!" she pleaded.

"My darling, you're such a child. You think that by saying 'I'm sorry' all the past can be corrected...Here, take my hankerchief. Never, at any crisis of your life, have I known you to have a hankerchief," he said and walked down the stairs.

\ Rhett and Scarlett's talk

"Rhett!Rhett! Where are you going?"

"I'm going to Charleston," he replied.

"Please take me with you!" she begged.

"No, I'm through with everything here," he said with a new look in his eyes. "I want peace...I want to see if somewhere there isn't something left in life of charm and grace...Do you know what I'm talking about?"

"No, I only know that I love you," she said.

"That's your misfortune," he replied as he picked up his bag and opened the door to leave.

"Rhet! Rhett, if you go, where shall I go, what shall I do?" she cried, following him.

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!" he replied.

Rhett's speech

Scarlett was stunned and crushed as he walked away. "I can't let him go...I can't! I won't think about losing him now! I'll go crazy if I do!...I'll think about that tomorrow....But I must thnk about it! I must think about it! What is there to do? What is there that matters?" she sobbed.

"Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara, that Tara, that land, doesn't mean anything to you? Why land's the only thing that matters-it's the only thing that last," came Gerald's voice from inside her head.

"Something you love more than me, though you may not know it-Tara" echoed Ashley.

"It's from this which you get your strength-the red earth of Tara," finished Rhett.

"Tara!"

"Tara!"

"Tara!"

Scarlett's chin lifted in a glorious smile. "Tara! Home!...I'll go home and then I'll think of some way to get him back! After all, tomorrow is another day!"

Scarlett's realization

As her face, faded away from the screen, her outline was left underneath the same tree that she and Gerald stood underneath so long ago. The wind rustled her skirts and she faded into the distance until all that was visible was Scarlett's outline against Gerald's beloved Tara.

Back to Main Page