"You are tired," he said, still watching her.
"You'd better go to bed."
"But I must tell you!"
"Scarlett," he said heavily, "I don't want to hear--anything."
"But you don't know what I'm going to say!"
"My pet, it's written plainly on your face.
Something, someone has made you realize that the unfortunate Mr. Wilkes is too large a mouthful of Dead Sea fruit for even you to chew.
And that same something has suddenly set my charms before you in a new and attractive light," he sighed slightly.
"And it's no use to talk about it."
She drew a sharp surprised breath.
Of course, he had always read her easily.
Heretofore she had resented it but now, after the first shock at her own transparency, her heart rose with gladness and relief.
He knew, he understood and her task was miraculously made easy.
No use to talk about it!
Of course he was bitter at her long neglect, of course he was mistrustful of her sudden turnabout.
She would have to woo him with kindness, convince him with a rich outpouring of love, and what a pleasure it would be to do it!
"Darling, I'm going to tell you everything," she said, putting her hands on the arm of his chair and leaning down to him.
"I've been so wrong, such a stupid fool--"
"Scarlett, don't go on with this.
Don't be humble before me.
I can't bear it.
Leave us some dignity, some reticence to remember out of our marriage.
Spare us this last."
She straightened up abruptly.
Spare us this last?
What did he mean by "this last"?
Last?
This was their first, their beginning.
"But I will tell you," she began rapidly, as if fearing his hand upon her mouth, silencing her.
"Oh, Rhett, I love you so, darling!
I must have loved you for years and I was such a fool I didn't know it.
Rhett, you must believe me!"
He looked at her, standing before him, for a moment, a long look that went to the back of her mind.
She saw there was belief in his eyes but little interest.
Oh, was he going to be mean, at this of all times?
To torment her, pay her back in her own coin?
"Oh, I believe you," he said at last.
"But what of Ashley Wilkes?"
"Ashley!" she said, and made an impatient gesture.
"I--I don't believe I've cared anything about him for ages.
It was--well, a sort of habit I hung onto from when I was a little girl.
Rhett, I'd never even thought I cared about him if I'd ever known what he was really like.
He's such a helpless, poor-spirited creature, for all his prattle about truth and honor and--"
"No," said Rhett.
"If you must see him as he really is, see him straight.
He's only a gentleman caught in a world he doesn't belong in, trying to make a poor best of it by the rules of the world that's gone."
"Oh, Rhett, don't let's talk of him!
What does he matter now?
Aren't you glad to know-- I mean, now that I--"
As his tired eyes met hers, she broke off in embarrassment, shy as a girl with her first beau.