He drank slowly, watching her over the glass and she tightened her nerves, trying to keep from trembling. For a time his face did not change its expression but finally he laughed, still keeping his eyes on her, and at the sound she could not still her shaking.
"It was an amusing comedy, this evening, wasn't it?" She said nothing, curling her toes in the loose slippers in an effort at controlling her quivering.
"A pleasant comedy with no character missing. The village assembled to stone the erring woman, the wronged husband supporting his wife as a gentleman should, the wronged wife
stepping in with Christian spirit and casting the garments of her spotless reputation over it all.
And the lover--"
"Please."
"I don't please. Not tonight. It's too amusing. And the lover looking like a damned fool and wishing he were dead. How does it feel, my dear, to have the woman you hate stand by you and cloak your sins for you? Sit down."
She sat down.
"You don't like her any better for it, I imagine. You are wondering if she knows all about you and Ashley--wondering why she did this if she does know--if she just did it to save her own face. And you are thinking she's a fool for doing it, even if it did save your hide but--"
"I will not listen--"
"Yes, you will listen. And I'll tell you this to ease your worry. Miss Melly is a fool but not the kind you think. It was obvious that someone had told her but she didn't believe it. Even if she saw, she wouldn't believe. There's too much honor in her to conceive of dishonor in anyone she loves. I don't know what lie Ashley Wilkes told her--but any clumsy one would do, for she loves Ashley and she loves you. I'm sure I can't see why she loves you but she does. Let that be one of your crosses."
"If you were not so drunk and insulting, I would explain everything," said Scarlett, recovering some dignity. "But now--"
"I am not interested in your explanations. I know the truth better than you do. By God, if you get up out of that chair just once more--
"And what I find more amusing than even tonight's comedy is the fact that while you have been so virtuously denying me the pleasures of your bed because of my many sins, you have been lusting in your heart after Ashley Wilkes. 'Lusting in your heart.' That's a good phrase, isn't it?
There are a number of good phrases, in that Book, aren't there?"
"What book? What book?" her mind ran on, foolishly, irrelevantly as she cast frantic eyes about the room, noting how dully the massive silver gleamed in the dim light, how frighteningly dark the corners were.
"And I was cast out because my coarse ardors were too much for your refinement--
because you didn't want any more children. How bad that made me feel, dear heart! How it cut me! So I went out and found pleasant consolation and left you to your refinements. And you spent that time tracking the long-suffering Mr. Wilkes. God damn him, what ails him? He can't be faithful to his wife with his mind or unfaithful with his body. Why doesn't he make up his mind? You wouldn't object to having his children, would you--and passing them off as mine?"
She sprang to her feet with a cry and he lunged from his seat, laughing that soft laugh that made her blood cold. He pressed her back into her chair with large brown hands and leaned over her.
"Observe my hands, my dear," he said, flexing them before her eyes. "I could tear you to pieces with them with no trouble whatsoever and I would do it if it would take Ashley out of your mind. But it wouldn't. So I think I'll remove him from your mind forever, this way. I'll put my hands, so, on each side of your head and I'll smash your skull between them like a walnut and that will blot him out."
His hands were on her head, under her flowing hair, caressing, hard, turning her face up to his. She was looking into the face of a stranger, a drunken drawling-voiced stranger. She had never lacked animal courage and in the face of danger it flooded back hotly into her veins, stiffening her spine, narrowing her eyes.
"You drunken fool," she said. "Take your hands off me."
To her surprise, he did so and seating himself on the edge of the table he poured himself another drink.
"I have always admired your spirit, my dear. Never more than now when you are
cornered."
She drew her wrapper close about her body. Oh, if she could only reach her room and turn
the key in the stout door and be alone. Somehow, she must stand him off, bully him into
submission, this Rhett she had never seen before. She rose without haste, though her knees shook, tightened the wrapper across her hips and threw back her hair from her face.