So I see I'll have to marry you."
"Rhett Butler, is this one of your vile jokes?"
"I bare my soul and you are suspicious!
No, Scarlett, this is a bona fide honorable declaration.
I admit that it's not in the best of taste, coming at this time, but I have a very good excuse for my lack of breeding.
I'm going away tomorrow for a long time and I fear that if I wait till I return you'll have married some one else with a little money.
So I thought, why not me and my money?
Really, Scarlett, I can't go all my life, waiting to catch you between husbands."
He meant it.
There was no doubt about it.
Her mouth was dry as she assimilated this knowledge and she swallowed and looked into his eyes, trying to find some clue.
They were full of laughter but there was something else, deep in them, which she had never seen before, a gleam that defied analysis.
He sat easily, carelessly but she felt that he was watching her as alertly as a cat watches a mouse hole.
There was a sense of leashed power straining beneath his calm that made her draw back, a little frightened.
He was actually asking her to marry him; he was committing the incredible.
Once she had planned how she would torment him should he ever propose.
Once she had thought that if he ever spoke those words she would humble him and make him feel her power and take a malicious pleasure in doing it.
Now, he had spoken and the plans did not even occur to her, for he was no more in her power than he had ever been.
In fact, he held the whip hand of the situation so completely that she was as flustered as a girl at her first proposal and she could only blush and stammer.
"I--I shall never marry again."
"Oh, yes, you will.
You were born to be married.
Why not me?"
"But Rhett, I--I don't love you."
"That should be no drawback.
I don't recall that love was prominent in your other two ventures."
"Oh, how can you?
You know I was fond of Frank!"
He said nothing.
"I was!
I was!"
"Well, we won't argue that.
Will you think over my proposition while I'm gone?"
"Rhett, I don't like for things to drag on.
I'd rather tell you now.
I'm going home to Tara soon and India Wilkes will stay with Aunt Pittypat.
I want to go home for a long spell and--I--I don't ever want to get married again."
"Nonsense.
Why?"
"Oh, well--never mind why.
I just don't like being married."
"But, my poor child, you've never really been married.
How can you know?
I'll admit you've had bad luck--once for spite and once for money.
Did you ever think of marrying--just for the fun of it?"
"Fun!
Don't talk like a fool.
There's no fun being married."
"No?
Why not?"