Content Warning: This section contains discussion of a forced sexual encounter.

During her honeymoon in New Orleans, Scarlett meets many of Rhett’s business friends and their ladies. She likes these people immensely compared to the stuffed shirts in Atlanta: “[T]hey were Rhett’s friends and had large houses and fine carriages […] gave parties in their honor. And Scarlett liked them very well. Rhett was amused when she told him so” (1092).

Rhett points out that all his friends made money the same way he did, through shady speculative dealings. He says that the Old Guard would never accept these people, no matter how much money they had. Rhett proposes building a fine new house in Atlanta and gives Scarlett carte blanche to design and decorate it any way she likes, even though he thinks she has terrible taste.

When the Butlers return to Atlanta, there is much whispering about cutting them out of the social elite, but Melanie staunchly defends Scarlett and tells all the ladies that she owes her life to her sister-in-law. Scarlett keeps a low profile until she can impress everyone by inviting them to the new house: “She wanted to delay her social activities until the day when the house was finished and she could emerge as the mistress of Atlanta’s largest mansion, the hostess of the town’s most elaborate entertainments” (1114-15).