"I do not."
"Oh, it's so obvious from the way you rush to his defense. You -- "
"I won't stand having my friends sneered at."
"Well, we'll let that pass for the moment. Does he still care for you or did Rock Island make him forget? Or perhaps he's learned to appreciate what a jewel of a wife he has?"
At the mention of Melanie, Scarlett began to breathe hard and could scarcely restrain herself from crying out the whole story, that only honor kept Ashley with Melanie. She opened her mouth to speak and then closed it.
"Oh. So he still hasn't enough sense to appreciate Mrs. Wilkes? And the rigors of prison didn't dim his ardor for you?"
"I see no need to discuss the subject."
"I wish to discuss it," said Rhett. There was a low note in his voice which Scarlett did not understand but did not like to hear. "And, by God, I will discuss it and I expect you to answer me. So he's still in love with you?"
"Well, what if he is?" cried Scarlett, goaded. "I don't care to discuss him with you because you can't understand him or his kind of love. The only kind of love you know about is just -- well, the kind you carry on with creatures like that Watling woman."
"Oh," said Rhett softly. "So I am only capable of carnal lusts?"
"Well, you know it's true."
"Now I appreciate your hesitance in discussing the matter with me. My unclean hands and lips besmirch the purity of his love."
"
Well, yes -- something like that."
"I'm interested in this pure love --"
"Don't be so nasty, Rhett Butler. If you are vile enough to think there's ever been anything wrong between us --"
"Oh, the thought never entered my head, really. That's why it all interests me. Just why hasn't there been anything wrong between you?"
"If you think that Ashley would --"
"Ah, so it's Ashley, and not you, who has fought the fight for purity. Really, Scarlett, you should not give yourself away so easily."
Scarlett looked into his smooth unreadable face in confusion and indignation.
"We won't go any further with this and I don't want your money. So, get out!"
"Oh, yes, you do want my money and, as we've gone this far, why stop? Surely there can be no harm in discussing so chaste an idyll -- when there hasn't been anything wrong. So Ashley loves you for your mind, your soul, your nobility of character?"
Scarlett writhed at his words. Of course, Ashley loved her for just these things. It was this knowledge that made life endurable, this knowledge that Ashley, bound by honor, loved her from afar for beautiful things deep buried in her that he alone could see. But they did not seem so beautiful when dragged to the light by Rhett, especially in that deceptively smooth voice that covered sarcasm.
"It gives me back my boyish ideals to know that such a love can exist in this naughty world," he continued. "So there's no touch of the flesh in his love for you? It would be the same if you were ugly and didn't have that white skin? And if you didn't have those green eyes which make a man wonder just what you would do if he took you in his arms? And a way of swaying your hips, that's an allurement to any man under ninety? And those lips which are -- well, I mustn't let my carnal lusts obtrude. Ashley sees none of these things? Or if he sees them, they move him not at all?"
Unbidden, Scarlett's mind went back to that day in the orchard when Ashley's arms shook as he held her, when his mouth was hot on hers as if he would never let her go. She went crimson at the memory and her blush was not lost on Rhett.
"So," he said and there was a vibrant note almost like anger in his voice. "I see. He loves you for your mind alone."
How dare he pry with dirty fingers, making the one beautiful sacred thing in her life seem vile? Coolly, determinedly, he was breaking down the last of her reserves and the information he wanted was forthcoming.
"Yes, he does!" she cried, pushing back the memory of Ashley's lips.
"My dear, he doesn't even know you've got a mind. If it was your mind that attracted him, he would not need to struggle against you, as he must have done to keep this love so -- shall we say "holy"? He could rest easily for, after all, a man can admire a woman's mind and soul and still be an honorable gentleman and true to his wife. But it must be difficult for him to reconcile the honor of the Wilkeses with coveting your body as he does."
"You judge everybody's mind by your own vile one!"