At sixteen, thanks to Mammy and Ellen, she looked sweet, charming and giddy, but she was, inreality, self-willed, vain and obstinate. She had the easily stirred
passions of her Irish father andnothing except the thinnest veneer of her mother’s unselfish and forbearing nature. Ellen neverfully realized that it was only a
veneer, for Scarlett always showed her best face to her mother,concealing her escapades, curbing her temper and appearing as sweet-natured as she could inEllen’s
presence, for her mother could shame her to tears with a reproachful glance.
But Mammy was under no illusions about her and was constantly alert for breaks in the veneer.
Mammy’s eyes were sharper than Ellen’s, and Scarlett could never recall in all her life havingfooled Mammy for long.
It was not that these two loving mentors deplored Scarlett’s high spirits, vivacity and charm.
These were traits of which Southern women were proud. It was Gerald’s headstrong and impetuousnature in her that gave them concern, and they sometimes feared they
would not be able to concealher damaging qualities until she had made a good match. But Scarlett intended to marry—andmarry Ashley—and she was willing to appear
demure, pliable and scatterbrained, if those were thequalities that attracted men. Just why men should be this way, she did not know. She only knew that such methods
worked. It never interested her enough to try to think out the reason for it, forshe knew nothing of the inner workings of any human being’s mind, not even her own.
She knewonly that if she did or said thus-and-so, men would unerringly respond with the complementarythus-and-so. It was like a mathematical
MOOC formula and no more
difficult, for mathematics was the onesubject that had come easy to Scarlett in her schooldays.
If she knew little about men’s minds, she knew even less about the minds of women, for theyinterested her less. She had never had a girl friend, and she never felt
any lack on that account. Toher, all women, including her two sisters, were natural enemies in pursuit of the same prey—man.
All women with the one exception of her mother.
Ellen O’Hara was different, and Scarlett holy and apart from all therest of humankind. When Scarlett was a child, she had confused her
mother with the Virgin Mary,and now that she was older she saw no reason for changing her opinion. To her, Ellen representedthe utter security that only Heaven or a
mother can give. She knew that her mother was theembodiment of justice, truth, loving tenderness and profound wisdom—a great lady.
Scarlett wanted very much to be like her mother. The only difficulty was that by being just andtruthful and tender and unselfish, one missed most of the joys of
life, and certainly many beaux.
And life was too short to miss such pleasant things. Some day when she was married to Ashley andold, some day when she had time for it, she intended to be like
Ellen. But, until then …