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At least he was good at serving, quite stylish in fact, and Scarlett
did so like for things to be stylish
Just then the doorbell soundedShe startled the manservant by
smiling
happily, then she moved towards the entrance hall to greet her
friends
They arrived in a steady stream for almost an hour and the house
filled
with the sound of loud voices, the overpowering smell of perfume and
powder, the brilliant colors of silks and satins, rubies and
sapphires
Scarlett moved through the melee smiling and laughing, flirting idly
with the men, accepting the fulsome compliments of the womenThey
were so happy to see her again, they'd missed her so much, no one's
parties were as exciting as hers, no one's home as beautiful, no one's
gown as fashionable, no one's hair as glossy, no one's figure as
youthful, no one's complexion so perfect and creamyI'm having a
good
timeIt's a wonderful partyShe glanced over the silver dishes black gucci bags and
trays on the long polished table to see that the servants were keeping
them all replenishedQuantities of food-excesses of food-were
important to her, for she would never forget completely what it had
been like to come so near to starvation at the end of the WarHer
friend Mamie Bart caught her eye and smiledA streak of buttery
sauce
from the half-eaten oyster patty in Mamie's hand had dribbled from
the
corner of ? her mouth down onto the diamond necklace around her fat
neckScarlett turned away in disgustMamie was going to be big as
an ? elephant one of these daysThank goodness, I can eat all I want
and never gain a poundShe smiled entrancingly at Harry
Connington,
her friend Sylvia's husband"You must have found some elixir, Harry,
you look ten years younger than you did last time I saw you She
watched with malicious amusement as Harry sucked in hisstomach
His
face turned red, then faintly purple before he abandoned the fake chanel bag effort to
hold it inScarlett laughed aloud, then moved awayA burst of
laughter caught her attention, and she drifted towards the trio of men
who were its sourceShe'd like very much to hear something funny,
even if it was one of those jokes that ladies had to pretend not to
understandso I says to myself, 'Bill, one man's panic is
another man's profit, and I know which one of those men old Bill's
going to be" Scarlett started to turn awayShe wanted to have a
good time tonight, and talking about the Panic wasn't her idea of
fun
Still, maybe she'd learn somethingShe was smarter when she was
sound
asleep than Bill Weller was on his best day, she was sure of thatIf
he was making money out of the Panic, she wanted to know how he
was
doing itQuietly she stepped closerthese dumb Southerners,
they been a problem for me ever since I come down here," Bill was
confessing"You just can't do nothing with a man who don't have
natural human cheap louis vuitton purse greed, so all the triple-your-money bond deals and
certificates for gold mines that I turned loose on them laid a big
egg
They was working harder than any nigger ever did and putting by
every
nickel they earned for the next rainy dayTurned out that plenty of
'em had a boxful of bonds and such alreadyFrom the Confederate
government Bill's booming laugh led the laughter of the other men"Dumb Southerners" indeed! Her own darling Pa
had a boxful of Confederate bondsSo did all the good people in
Clayton CountyShe tried to walk away, but she was hemmed in by
people behind her who'd also been attracted by the laughter in the
group around Bill Weller"I got the picture after a while," Weller
went on"They just didn't put much trust in paperNor nothing else
that I tried, neitherI sent out medicine shows and lightning rods
and all the sure-fire money-makers, but none of them so much as
struck
a sparkI tell you, boys, it hurt my pride imitation chanel handbags He made a lugubrious
face, then grinned widely, showing three large gold molars"I don't
have to tell you that me and Lula wasn't exactly going to go wanting if
I didn't come up with somethingIn the good, fat days when the
Republicans had Georgia in hand, I piled up enough from those
railroad
contracts the boys voted me so that we could have lived high on the
hog
even if I'd been fool enough to actually go out and build the
railroadsBut I like to keep my hand in, and Lula was starting to
fret because I was around the house too much, not having any
business
to tend to
Then-glory be-along come the Panic, and all the Rebs grabbed their
savings out of the banks and put the money in their mattresses
Every house-even the shacks-was a golden opportunity I just couldn't
let pass me by
"Stop your gassing, Bill, what did you come up with? I'm getting
thirsty waiting for you to finish patting yourself on the back and get
to the black chanel tote poi |
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