近期热门的优选书刊《飘》，轻松有趣温柔的治愈你(96)

“If they can"t pay, why do they keep on buying？”she thought irritably.“And if he knows they can"t pay, why does he keep on selling them stuff？Lots of them could pay if he"d just make them do it. The Elsings certainly could if they could give Fanny a new satin dress and an expensive wedding.Frank"s just too soft hearted, and people take advantage of him.Why, if he"d collected half this money, he could have bought the sawmill and easily spared me the tax money, too.”
Then she thought：“Just imagine Frank trying to operate a sawmill！God"s nightgown！If he runs this store like a charitable institution, how could he expect to make money on a mill？The sheriff would have it in a month. Why, I could run this store better than he does！And I could run a mill better than he could, even if I don"t know anything about the lumber business！
”
A startling thought this, that a woman could handle business matters as well as or better than a man, a revolutionary thought to Scarlett who had been reared in the tradition that men were omniscient and women none too bright. Of course, she had discovered that this was not altogether true but the pleasant fiction still stuck in her mind.Never before had she put this remarkable idea into words.She sat quite still, with the heavy book across her lap, her mouth a little open with surprise, thinking that during the lean months at Tara she had done a man"s work and done it well.She had been brought up to believe that a woman alone could accomplish nothing, yet she had managed the plantation without men to help her until Will came.Why, why, her mind stuttered, Ibelieve women could manage everything in the world without men"s help—except having babies, and God knows, no woman in her right mind would have babies if she could help it.