"Oh, Rhett, for God's sake ..." she began desperately, her courage and control breaking, "Do lower your voice. You don't want the Yankees to hear you, I hope. Did anyone ever tell you you had eyes like a cat—a cat in the dark?"
"Rhett, don't! I'll tell you everything. I do need the money so badly. I—I lied about everything being all right. Everything's as wrong as it could be. Father is—is—he's not himself.
He's been queer ever since Mother died and he can't help me any. He's just like a child. And we haven't a single field hand to work the cotton and there's so many to feed, thirteen of us. And the taxes—they are so high. Rhett, I'll tell you everything. For over a year we've been just this side of starvation. Oh, you don't know! You can't know! We've never had enough to eat and it's te
