Chapter 7 Ashley Back Home
　　
　　
　　(Home from their lost adventure came the lattered
　　Cavaliers. Grimly they came hobbling back to the
　　desolation that had once been a land of grace and plenty.
　　And with them came another invader, more cruel and
　　vicious than any they had fought, the Carpetbagger.)
　　
　　SERVANT: Katie Scarlett! It‘s over! It‘s over! It‘s all over,the war! We surrendered!
　　
　　CORRINE: It‘s not possible.
　　
　　SUE ELLEN: Why did we ever fight?
　　
　　MELANIE: Ashely will be coming home.
　　
　　SCARLETT: Yes, Ashely will be coming home. We‘ll plantmore cotton. Cotton ought to go sky-high next year.
　　
　　MELANIE: Scarlett, what seems to be the trouble withMr. Kennedy?
　　
　　SCARLETT: More trouble than he guesses. He‘s finallyasked for Sue Ellen‘s hand.
　　
　　MELANIE: Oh, I‘m so glad.
　　
　　SCARLETT: It‘s a pity he can‘t marry her now. At leastbe one less mouth to feed.
　　
　　(Scarlett, Melanie and Mammie stand in front of the door.A figure appears in the distance.)
　　
　　SCARLETT: Oh another one. I hope this one isn‘t hungry.
　　
　　MAMMIE: Oh, he‘ll be hungry
　　
　　SCARLETT: I‘ll tell Prissy to get an extra plate.
　　
　　(It‘s Ashley! Melanie opens her arms, running to him.)
　　
　　MELANIE: Ashley! Ashley!
　　
　　MAMMIE: Miss Scarlett! Don‘t spoil it. Miss Scarlett.
　　
　　SCARLETT: Turn me loose, you fool, turn me loose! It‘sAshley.
　　
　　MAMMIE: He‘s her husband, Auntie.
　　
　　(Several days passed. One day, a servant comes toScarlett.)
　　
　　SERVANT: Miss Scarlett Ma‘am...
　　
　　SCARLETT: High time you got back. Did you get the horseshod?
　　
　　SERVANT: Yes‘m, he shod all right. Miss Scarlett Ma‘am.
　　
　　SCARLETT: Fine thing when a horse can get shoes andhumans can‘t. Here stir the soup.
　　
　　SERVANT: Miss Scarlett Ma‘am, I‘ve got to know howmuch money have you got left? In gold.
　　
　　SCARLETT: Ten dollars. Why?
　　
　　SERVANT: That won‘t be enough.
　　
　　SCARLETT: What in Heaven‘s name are you talkingabout?
　　
　　SERVANT: Well, Miss Scarlett, I see that old no-accountwhite trash, Wilkenson, that used to be Mister Jerry‘soverseer here. He‘s a regular Yankee now, and he wasmaking a brag, that his carpetbagger friends done runthe taxes way up sky-high on Tara.
　　
　　SCARLETT: How much more do we gotta pay?
　　
　　SERVANT: I heard the tax man say three hundred dollars.
　　
　　SCARLETT: Three hundred... Oh, my, just as well be threemillion. Well, we gotta raise it, that‘s all.
　　
　　SERVANT: Yes‘m. How?
　　
　　SCARLETT: I‘ll go ask Mr. Ashley.
　　
　　SERVANT: Oh, he ain‘t got no three hundred dollars. MissScarlett.
　　
　　SCARLETT: Well, I can ask him if I want to, can‘t I?
　　
　　SERVANT: Asking ain‘t getting.
　　
　　(The Farm. Ashley is chopping wood.)
　　
　　SCARLETT: Ashely...
　　
　　ASHLEY: They say Abe Lincoln got his start splitting rails.Just think what heights I may climb to once I get the"knack.
　　
　　SCARLETT: Ashely. The Yankees want three hundreddollars more in taxes. What shall we do? Ashley, what‘s tobecome of us?
　　
　　ASHLEY: What do you think becomes of people whentheir civilization breaks up? Those who have brains andcourage come through all right. Those who haven‘t arewinnowed out.
　　
　　SCARLETT: For Heaven‘s sake Ashley Wilkes. Don‘t standthere talking nonsense at me when it‘s us who are beingwinnowed out.
　　
　　ASHLEY: You‘re right, Scarlett. Here I am talkingtummy-rot about civilization, when your Tara‘s in danger.You come to me for help and I have no help to give you.Oh, Scarlett, I‘m a coward.
　　
　　SCARLETT: You, Ashley, a coward? What are you afraidof?
　　
　　ASHLEY: Oh, mostly of life becoming too real for me, Isuppose. Not that I mind splitting rails. But I do mind very much losing the beauty of that, that life I loved. If the war hadn‘t come, I‘d have spent my life happily buried at Twelve Oaks. But the war did come. I saw my boyhood friends blown to bits. I saw men crumple3 up in agony when I shot them. And now I find myself in a world which for me is worse than death. A world in which there is no place for me. Oh, I can never make you understand, because you don‘t know the meaning of fear. You never mind facing realities. And you never want to escape from them as I do.
　　
　　SCARLETT: Escape? Oh, Ashley you‘re wrong. I do want to escape, too. I‘m so very tired of it all. I‘ve struggled for food and for money and I‘ve weeded and hoed and picked cotton until I can‘t stand it another minute. I tell you, Ashley, the South is dead, it‘s dead. The Yankees and the carpetbaggers have got it and there‘s nothing left for us. Oh, Ashley, let‘s run away. We‘d go to Mexico. They want officers in the Mexican army, we could be so happy there. Ashley I‘d work for you, I‘d do anything for you. You know you don‘t love Melanie, you told me you loved me that day at Twelve Oaks, and anyway, Melanie can‘t...Dr. Meade told me she couldn‘t ever have any more children. And I could give you...
　　
　　ASHLEY: Can‘t we ever forget that day at Twelve Oaks?
　　
　　SCARLETT: Just think I could ever forget it, have you forgotten it? Can you honestly say you don‘t love me?
　　
　　ASHLEY: No, I ...I don‘t love you.
　　
　　SCARLETT: It‘s a lie.
　　
　　ASHLEY: Even if it is a lie, do you think that I could go off and leave Melanie and the baby? Break Melanie‘s heart? Scarlett,are you mad? You couldn‘t leave your father and the girls.
　　
　　SCARLETT: I could leave them, I‘m sick of them, I‘m tired of them...
　　
　　ASHLEY: Yes, you sick and tired, that‘s why you‘re talking this way. You‘ve carried the load for all of us. But from now on, I‘m going to be more help to you, I promise.
　　
　　SCARLETT: There‘s only one way you can help me. Take me away. There‘s nothing to keep us here.
　　
　　ASHLEY: Nothing...nothing except honor. Please Scarlett, please dear, you mustn‘t cry. Please, my brave dear, you mustn‘t...
　　
　　SCARLETT: You do love me, you do love me...
　　
　　ASHLEY: No don‘t, don‘t!
　　
　　SCARLETT: You love me!
　　
　　ASHLEY: We won‘t do this, I tell you, we won‘t do it. It won‘t happen again, I‘m going to take Melanie and the baby and go.
　　
　　SCARLETT: Just say that you love me.
　　
　　ASHLEY: All right, I‘ll say it. I love your courage and your stubbornness. I love them so much that a moment ago I could have forgotten the best wife a man ever had. But Scarlett, I‘m not going to forget her.
　　
　　SCARLETT: Then there‘s nothing left for me. Nothing to fight for. Nothing to live for. ASHLEY: Yes, there is something. Something you love better than me, though you may not know it, Tara.
　　
　　(Ashley puts into Scarlett‘s hands some soil.)
　　
　　SCARLETT: Yes, I...I still have this. You needn‘t go. I won‘t have you
　　all starve simply because I threw myself at your head. It won‘t happen again.