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 "Oh, Mammy, Mammy, why isn't Scarlett here?" Suellen wailed, clutching at Mammy's skirts when she came down the stairs. "
I know she got the letter, but she may be just so involved with herself that she-"

 "Sue! She would never so anything like that. Why can't you be more nice toward her?" Carreen scolded.

 "Because she is in Atlanta, living it up, not caring what we're going through."

 "She doesn't know- How could she?"

 "Hush you two- Miss Ellen might hear you from her room. We don't want to upset her now." At these words Carreen started to cry, knowing that she really was going to lose her mother.

 Then when Mammy sat down, she sat down on the floor and got as close as she could with that awful corset on. "Tell us what Mother used to be like.. Was she ever like us, giggling like girl's at balls, whispering secrets at night, admiring beaux.." Carreen got a dreamy look on her face, thinking about what Twelve Oaks and Tara used to be like, and Stuart- Darling Stuart.

 Mammy sighed. "I can tell you as much as I can- At least as much as I know about what went on inside Ellen's head."

  ~ ~ ~
 "And you wouldn't believe what I found on the other side of that tree!" Ellen paused to give it a dramatic effect. "It was- oh, you know, the girl with the red hair, and Mr Hewlett, that old man in the other side of town!" she cracked up, laughing, while her friends, who had been hanging on to her every word, giggled. One of the slaves, an elderly woman put in to watch the young slave girl's that often fanned the women, popped her head in, telling them to be quiet.

 "Well, you know what always happens when we girls have our 'quiet time' in the middle of the balls," Ellen defended. One of the girl's whispered, "Yeah, it never becomes much of a quiet time." The girl's giggled again.

 "Now come, Miss Ellen, take your nap. Your ma told you that if you want to be allowed to stay up for dancing, you have to get your sleep."

 And Ellen replied, as her daughter would one day, "I never noticed any Yankee girl's taking naps."

 When is was finally time to get up -it seemed like a long time since Ellen never was able to fall asleep on purpose- and the dresses were perfected on the girl's, Ellen strolled down the steps. Philippe Robillard, her dashing cousin, sent her a grin and led her out to talk to some of his friends. After the chit-chat, she sat down on the stone bench to watch Philippe.

 At the same time, her father was wrapping up a conversation with his neighbor and turned to call his daughter. What he saw shocked him. His little girl was staring at his nephew. His nephew, the troublemaker. But it was the expression on her precious face that got him- the eyes were all glassy, and a silly smile was plastered on, and her cheeks were flushed.

 Ellen was in love.

  The father sighed desperately. Philippe was too much of a troublemaker, he wasn't good enough for her. But who was good enough for her? Ellen was of course pretty, with a charm not matched for five towns around. No, no girl he knew of was as wonderful as Ellen.

  His eyes scanned the room- Young, stupid boys; old men; men in their late twenties that probably would never get married. 'Ugh, why is it so hard to find a suitable husband in the whole state!' All father's felt that way, he thought afterwards.

 In Ellen's eyes, though, her cousin wasn't at all mischievous. He was dashing, wonderful, perfect, with a brilliant smile that could light up the whole room. Oh, why didn't he notice her as not just a little cousin?! 'Haven't I always been a good person, considerate and following him around?' She watched him flirt with a pretty blonde, and wondered if there was something the girl had that she didn't have. Then she sat up. 'I'll have to play hard to get.'
~~
  When Gerald O'Hara came to Town

Unfortunately, the plan didn't go as smoothly as planned. What was supposed to be a day, turned into a week, which turned into a month.

 Ellen had put on the rouge, a low-cut dress, with a shockingly revealing inch of skin on the ankles. The only way she had gotten away with this was because Mammy, Papa, and her brother were out. Philippe was down in the parlor, smoking a pipe and staring at the fireplace.

  She cascaded down the steps, the back of the dress barely brushing the carpet. "Hello," she said in her best voice.

  The response was not to be as expected. Instead of saying how beautiful she looked, he hid his smile on the back of his hand. "Cousin, what are you doing. You know better than to break into the rouge stash. What would your mammy say if she saw you?" Taking a handkerchief, he removed the makeup from her face like she was a child.

  "But I did this for you."

  "Aw, aren't you sweet."

  And that was all he would ever say when she tried one of her schemes. "Aren't you precious." "Isn't that adorable." Never any thing she wanted him to say.

  A week later, when she had given up any hope of winning him over, a middle-aged man came to town by the name of Gerald O'Hara. She was waiting in the carriage outside of the hall, waiting for her parent's to come out, when she met him.

  When she first caught sight of him, it wasn't very impressive. He had an Irish accent, and was only five feet tall. She barely paid attention to his story- All she caught was he was the youngest out of many boys, left home and his country to come to America. The basic story. "What about you?" he asked. This wasn't a very usual comment- No one ever asked about her.

 Basically the only thing on her mind these days were her love, but she couldn't say that. "My brother is a usual arrogant person, and it's assumed he got it from his father. Mother* is pretty nice, when she wants to be. That's my life."

  "That's not much of a life, I'm sure there's more." She had heard he had a temper, but right now he had this kindness in his eyes that no one ever showed her before. Although she didn't know it, it was the same look she gave Philippe.

  "My cousin is staying with us for a while, also. But tell me, why'd you come to this town?"

  " I just bought a plantation, and I got bored with it. I get bored very easily." He didn't say it, but he was looking for a bride. And he was pretty sure he had found one.

  It was only a while later he asked Ellen to marry him.
~~
  The Departure

  Ellen didn't even consider this. There was no way she would marry him.

  But the arguments started up at nights between her father, brother and Philippe. Things would be thrown, voices would yell, and it was beginning to become scary. 'What if he leaves?' A week earlier this wouldn't even be a possibility. Now it seemed the only way out.

  One night there was an argument worse than ever before. Ellen tried to listen carefully through the door, but she only heard it at a  murmur. When it was silent and it seemed as if her cousin had gone back in his room, she braved going out to the hallway. "Philippe, are you okay?" she whispered. She shuddered when the door opened and he stood holding his suitcase.

 He held her face, acting like he had never seen her before.

 "Darling, you really did love me, didn't you?" He said, his face looking full of pity for her.

  'Why should this happen to me?' she thought. Emotions flowed through her, and anger seemed to out run them all. The fact that she was so helpless to stop him from leaving had a lot to do with it. 'I can't take this.' Her hand flew to his face, enjoying the shocked look she was was rewarded with.

 "What is wrong with you?"

 "I tried so very hard, and yet you still didn't love me! I put on rouge, and tried to improve myself, I even stopped eating, trying to think of how to impress you. Now you're leaving, and- and-" She stopped, turning on her heel to run from the scene.

 That night she cried and sobbed into her pillow, beating against the sheets. Only her Mammy knew of this night, trying to comfort. Yes, only Mammy knew the whole long story. 'And that is the way it was going to stay,' she decided. 'I'll hide my emotions from now on. I won't be that stupid again!'

  The next morning she said yes to Gerald's proposal. Before she left in the carriage she said to her father, "Now, not only have you lost your nephew, but you've lost your daughter forever."

 She spent the rest of her life without the old spark in her eyes, and without laughing like she used to. When Phillippe left, he took it all.
 
 
 

*- I'm not sure is she had a mother or not... Any one know?