“Forgive me for startling you with the impetuosity of my sentiments,my dear Scarlett—I mean,my dear Mrs.Kennedy.It cannot have escaped your notice that for some time past the friendship I have had in my heart for you has ripened into a deeper feeling,a feeling more beautiful,more pure,more sacred.Dare I name it for you?Ah!It is love which makes me so bold!”
“Do get up,”she entreated.“You look such a fool and suppose Mammy should come in and see you?”
“She would be stunned and incredulous at the first signs of my gentility,”said Rhett,arising lightly.“Come,Scarlett,you are no child,no schoolgirl to put me off with foolish excuses about decency and so forth.Say you'll marry me when I come back or,before God,I won't go.I'll stay around here and play a guitar under your window every night and sing at the top of my voice and compromise you,so you'll have to marry me to save your reputation.”
“Rhett,do be sensible.I don't want to marry anybody.”
“No?You aren't telling me the real reason.It can't be girlish timidity.What is it?”
Suddenly she thought of Ashley,saw him as vividly as though he stood beside her,sunny haired,drowsy eyed,full of dignity,so utterly different from Rhett.He was the real reason she did not want to marry again,although she had no objections to Rhett and at times was genuinely fond of him.She belonged to Ashley,forever and ever.She had never belonged to Charles or Frank,could never really belong to Rhett.Every part of her,almost everything she had ever done,striven after,attained,belonged to Ashley,were done because she loved him.Ashley and Tara,she belonged to them.The smiles,the laughter,the kisses she had given Charles and Frank were Ashley's,even though he had never claimed them,would never claim them.Somewhere deep in her was the desire to keep herself for him,although she knew he would never take her.
She did not know that her face had changed,that reverie had brought a softness to her face which Rhett had never seen before.He looked at the slanting green eyes,wide and misty,and the tender curve of her lips and for a moment his breath stopped.Then his mouth went down violently at one corner and he swore with passionate impatience.
“Scarlett O'Hara,you're a fool!”
Before she could withdraw her mind from its far places,his arms were around her,as sure and hard as on the dark road to Tara,so long ago.She felt again the rush of helplessness,the sinking yielding,the surging tide of warmth that left her limp.And the quiet face of Ashley Wilkes was blurred and drowned to nothingness.He bent back her head across his arm and kissed her,softly at first,and then with a swift gradation of intensity that made her cling to him as the only solid thing in a dizzy swaying world.His insistent mouth was parting her shaking lips,sending wild tremors along her nerves,evoking from her sensations she had never known she was capable of feeling.And before a swimming giddiness spun her round and round,she knew that she was kissing him back.
“Stop—please,I'm faint!”she whispered,trying to turn her head weakly from him.He pressed her head back hard against his shoulder and she had a dizzy glimpse of his face.His eyes were wide and blazing queerly and the tremor in his arms frightened her.
“I want to make you faint.I will make you faint.You've had this coming to you for years.None of the fools you've known have kissed you like this—have they?Your precious Charles or Frank or your stupid Ashley—”
“Please—”
“I said your stupid Ashley.Gentlemen all—what do they know about women?What did they know about you?I know you.”
His mouth was on hers again and she surrendered without a struggle,too weak even to turn her head,without even the desire to turn it,her heart shaking her with its poundings,fear of his strength and her nerveless weakness sweeping her.What was he going to do?She would faint if he did not stop.If he would only stop—if he would never stop.
“Say Yes!”His mouth was poised above hers and his eyes were so close that they seemed enormous,filling the world.“Say Yes,damn you,or—”
She whispered “Yes”before she even thought.It was almost as if he had willed the word and she had spoken it without her own volition.But even as she spoke it,a sudden calm fell on her spirit,her head began to stop spinning and even the giddiness of the brandy was lessened.She had promised to marry him when she had had no intention of promising.She hardly knew how it had all come about but she was not sorry.It now seemed very natural that she had said Yes—almost as if by divine intervention,a hand stronger than hers was about her affairs,settling her problems for her.
He drew a quick breath as she spoke and bent as if to kiss her again and her eyes closed and her head fell back.But he drew back and she was faintly disappointed.It made her feel so strange to be kissed like this and yet there was something exciting about it.
He sat very still for a while holding her head against his shoulder and,as if by effort,the trembling of his arms ceased.He moved away from her a little and looked down at her.She opened her eyes and saw that the frightening glow had gone from his face.But somehow she could not meet his gaze and she dropped her eyes in a rush of tingling confusion.
When he spoke his voice was very calm.
“You meant it?You don't want to take it back?”
“No.”
“It's not just because I've—what is the phrase?—‘swept you off your feet'by my—er—ardor?”
She could not answer for she did not know what to say,nor could she meet his eyes.He put a hand under her chin and lifted her face.
“I told you once that I could stand anything from you except a lie.And now I want the truth.Just why did you say Yes?”
Still the words would not come,but,a measure of poise returning,she kept her eyes demurely down and tucked the corners of her mouth into a little smile.
“Look at me.Is it my money?”
“Why,Rhett!What a question!”