@@@@@The faces around the table were without
@@@@@The faces around the table were without lines,
the clothes without patchesFor these sweet moments of illusion, it
was as if Mimosa was transported to a timeless place and hour where
there was no pain and there had never been a WarMany years
before,
Scarlett had vowed to herself that she would never look back
Remembering the halcyon preWar days, mourning them, yearning for
them
would only hurt and weaken her, and she needed all her strength and
determination to survive and to protect her familyBut the shared
memories in the dining room at Mimosa were not at all a source of
weaknessThey gave her courage; they were proof that good people
could suffer every kind of loss and still retain the capacity for love
and laughterShe was proud to be included in their number, proud to
call them her friends, proud that they were what they wereWill
walked in front of the buggy on the way home, carrying a pitch pine
torch and leading the horseIt was a dark night, and it was very
late
Overhead the stars were bright in a cloudless sky, so bright that the
quarter-moon looked almost transparently paleThe only sound was
the
slow clop-clop of the horse's hoovesSuellen dozed olf, but Scarlett
fought her sleepinessShe didn't want the evening to end, she
wanted
the warm comfort and happiness of it to last foreverHow strong Tony
looked! And so full of life, so pleased with his funny boots, with
himself, with everythingThe Tarleton girls acted like a bunch of
red-haired tabby kittens looking at a bowl of creamI wonder which
one will catch himBeatrice Tarleton's sure going to see to it that
one of them does! An owl in the woods beside the road said "whoo,
whoo?" and Scarlett giggled to herselfThey were more than halfway
to Tara before she realized that she hadn't thought about Rhett for
hoursThen melancholy and worry clamped down on her like lead
weights, and she noticed for the first time that the night air was cold
and her body was chilledShe pulled her shawl close around her and
silently urged Will to hurryI don't want to think about anything,
not tonight
I don't want to spoil the good time I hadHurry, Will, it's cold and
it's darkThe next morning Scarlett and Suellen drove the children
over in the wagon to MimosaWade was shiny-eyed with hero worship
when Tony showed off his six-