Chapter 51
The General Beauregard's cable car set off in its newly laid line in the midst of exuberant hoots and cheers. Scarlett gazed in wonder at the endlessly moving wire rope to which the different coaches latched on and moved quickly as if they were being pulled along by horses! As the cars pulled away, the young people in the sidelines, black and white, seemed to have a riot of a time as they whistled and turned cartwheels to show a rather exaggerated if not paradoxical support for the General's commercial endeavors. Scarlett found their laughter a little disconcerting. She felt they seemed to be mocking this occasion. She couldn't think why. Wasnt this a moment of great triumph for the South? Wasnt all this supposed to be unifying the people?!
As they hurried along the line, Scarlett tried to smile and be happy but then she remembered the shock of seeing Rhett walk away from her once again. The memory numbed her heart so much that she almost felt nothing. She wanted to be by herself. She wanted to cry but as much as her heart twisted in pain, the tears would not come. In truth, she was glad Rhett had left! Still her heart ached forlornly at why two people as like minded as herself and Rhett could not live together in peace.
She sat back in her seat and saw that Wade had moved to a nearby window seat and a young lady, as fashionably attired as herself was standing in the aisle with a good natured, rather brisk smile.
"Hello, I am Rachel Andrews-"
"Why yes!" cried Scarlett, her mood quickly changing to relief as the young lady sat down beside her with her feathery parasol on her knees.
"My Uncle reminded me to find you, Mrs. Butler and give you company throughout this joy ride. He has taken quite a liking to you!"
"Why, how very kind of the General!" cried Scarlett,blushing with pleasure. "I feel honored for being so singled out for such attention. This is a wonderful experience, isnt it?! From everything Ive heard today, the General is a war hero turned intellectual. He is so inspiring!"
"War hero he is!" replied Rachel with a smile. "But an intellectual, he is not! Im afraid my Uncle will be what he has always been..a charming ignoramous!"
Scarlett's eyebrows rushed together in a dark frown. It was queer how those words rang so similar to how Rhett referred to herself in the reconstruction days. "Why, after everything we heard today, surely there is a good future in uniting the South? Surely the General is right-"
Rachel sighed. "He's got a lucky hunch but its not enough to convince the people. Uncle changed a lot after the war. It must have been the stress. He's not good at this sort of thing."
"My goodness!" exclaimed Scarlett, visibly annoyed at Rachel's dismissal of her latest favorite. "You talk as if only certain people can speak about what is good for the South."
Rachel stared hard at Scarlett.
"When a person who has been sharp and shrewd all his life suddenly starts to think himself an intellectual and look for the hidden meaning in things, I can tell something is wrong. There are people who understand things in a deeper way. There are intellectuals who have insights. These people are well learned, they read books and share their ideas in a calm, elegant, simple way with a true passion to make others understand the sequence of their Uncle takes those insights and dresses them up as his own- Im afraid all this talk boils down to promotion of cable cars and supervision of lotteries!"
Scarlett flushed hard at this , hurriedly covering her mouth with her handkerchief. Something deep within her stirred in the most unpleasant way on hearing these words. In fact, the words seemed to be burning into her...right down to her soul.
"He wants everyone to get along, that much I am sure of!" concluded Rachel quietly. "The poor darling. Its all the stress. It really does a number on one's mind!"
Scarlett returned a vague smile and looked out the window. Outside people stood in clumps waving and cheering as the cable car moved by. The people inside waved back and chatted gaily with one another. Scarlett tried to supress her emotions but theybwere too strong for her. They tore through her body without pity and she quivered in distress. Suddenly she remembered several unpleasant things. She remembered how she had taken Rhett's own observations and used them to her advantage. She remembered passing them off as her own and denying to Rhett's own face that he played no part in her growing intelligence. Every complicated thought, every abstract idea...she borrowed those from Rhett and even Ashley. Suddenly she realized that while she liked to think of herself as someone mysterious and who liked to think of "higher things", she also treated those very things with contempt and tried to peddle off those insights as if she were peddaling lumber!
Now she remembered lying near Rhett and listening to his endless ideas and opinions and arguments and laughing at his thoughts and words by the light of the bedroom candle. She remembered wondering why Rhett should speak those things to her and now she understood once again that Rhett had loved her.
He had made love to her mind and she didnt even know it.
"Oh, the fool!" cried Scarlett, in fury. Tears kept running down her face and she wiped them as quickly as they came. "The fool! Did I ask for all this?! People don't go around loving one another from the start. He shouldn't have.. Not to me.. Not to me.. "
Mercifully the cable cars stopped near the station and people began to get down. Scarlett clutched her head that was throbbing badly and decided to go back home.