I'll wager even dowagers like Mrs. Merriwether . . ."

Scarlett gulped in silence, remembering that wherever two or more

matrons were gathered together, in these trying days, they

whispered of such happenings, always in Virginia or Tennessee or

Lousiana, never close to home. The Yankees raped women and ran

bayonets through children's stomachs and burned houses over the

heads of old people. Everyone knew these things were true even if

they didn't shout them on the street corners. And if Rhett had any

decency he would realize they were true. And not talk about them.

And it wasn't any laughing matter either.

She could hear him chuckling softly. Sometimes he was odious. In

fact, most of the time he was odious. It was awful for a man to

know what women really thought about and talked about. It made a

girl feel positively undressed. And no man ever learned such

things from good women either. She was indignant that he had read

her mind. She liked to believe herself a thing of mystery to men,

but she knew Rhett thought her as transparent as glass.

"Speaking of such matters," he continued, "have you a protector or

chaperon in the house? The admirable Mrs. Merriwether or Mrs.

Meade? They always look at me as if they knew I was here for no

good purpose."

"Mrs. Meade usually comes over at night," answered Scarlett, glad

to change the subject. "But she couldn't tonight. Phil, her boy,

Is home."

"What luck," he said softly, "to find you alone."

Something in his voice made her heart beat pleasantly faster and

she felt her face flush. She had heard that note in men's voices

often enough to know that it presaged a declaration of love. Oh,

what fun! If he would just say he loved her, how she would torment

him and get even with him for all the sarcastic remarks he had

flung at her these past three years. She would lead him a chase

that would make up for even that awful humiliation of the day he

witnessed her slapping Ashley. And then she'd tell him sweetly she

could only be a sister to him and retire with the full honors of

war. She laughed nervously in pleasant anticipation.

"Don't giggle," he said, and taking her hand, he turned it over and

pressed his lips into the palm. Something vital, electric, leaped

from him to her at the touch of his warm mouth, something that

caressed her whole body thrillingly. His lips traveled to her

wrist and she knew he must feel the leap of her pulse as her heart

quickened and she tried to draw back her hand. She had not

bargained on this--this treacherous warm tide of feeling that made

her want to run her hands through his hair, to feel his lips upon

her mouth.

She wasn't in love with him, she told herself confusedly. She was

In love with Ashley. But how to explain this feeling that made her

hands shake and the pit of her stomach grow cold?

He laughed softly.

"Don't pull away! I won't hurt you!"

"Hurt me? I'm not afraid of you, Rhett Butler, or of any man in

shoe leather!" she cried, furious that her voice shook as well as

her hands.

"An admirable sentiment, but do lower your voice. Mrs. Wilkes

might hear you. And pray compose yourself." He sounded as though

delighted at her flurry.

"Scarlett, you do like me, don't you?"

That was more like what she was expecting.

"Well, sometimes," she answered cautiously. "When you aren't

acting like a varmint."

He laughed again and held the palm of her hand against his hard

cheek.

"I think you like me because I am a varmint. You've known so few

dyed-in-the-wool varmints in your sheltered life that my very

difference holds a quaint charm for you."

This was not the turn she had anticipated and she tried again

without success to pull her hand free.

"That's not true! I like nice men--men you can depend on to always

be gentlemanly."

"You mean men you can always bully. It's merely a matter of

definition. But no matter."

He kissed her palm again, and again the skin on the back of her

neck crawled excitingly.

"But you do like me. Could you ever love me, Scarlett?"

"Ah!" she thought, triumphantly. "Now I've got him!" And she

answered with studied coolness: "Indeed, no. That is--not unless

you mended your manners considerably."

"And I have no intention of mending them. So you could not love

me? That is as I hoped. For while I like you immensely, I do not

love you and it would be tragic indeed for you to suffer twice from

unrequited love, wouldn't it, dear? May I call you 'dear,' Mrs.

Hamilton? I shall call you 'dear' whether you like it or not, so

no matter, but the proprieties must be observed."

"You don't love me?"

"No, indeed. Did you hope that I did?"

"Don't be so presumptuous!"

"You hoped! Alas, to blight your hopes! I should love you, for

you are charming and talented at many useless accomplishments. But

many ladies have charm and accomplishments and are just as useless

as you are. No, I don't love you. But I do like you tremendously--

for the elasticity of your conscience, for the selfishness which

you seldom trouble to hide, and for the shrewd practicality in you

which, I fear, you get from some not too remote Irish-peasant

ancestor."

Peasant! Why, he was insulting her! She began to splutter

wordlessly.

"Don't interrupt," he begged, squeezing her hand. "I like you

because I have those same qualities in me and like begets liking.

I realize you still cherish the memory of the godlike and wooden-

headed Mr. Wilkes, who's probably been in his grave these six

months. But there must be room in your heart for me too.

Scarlett, do stop wriggling! I am making you a declaration. I

have wanted you since the first time I laid eyes on you, in the

hall of Twelve Oaks, when you were bewitching poor Charlie

Hamilton. I want you more than I have ever wanted any woman--and

I've waited longer for you than I've ever waited for any woman."

She was breathless with surprise at his last words. In spite of

all his insults, he did love her and he was just so contrary he

didn't want to come out frankly and put it into words, for fear

she'd laugh. Well, she'd show him and right quickly.

"Are you asking me to marry you?"

He dropped her hand and laughed so loudly she shrank back in her

chair.

"Good Lord, no! Didn't I tell you I wasn't a marrying man?"

"But--but--what--"

He rose to his feet and, hand on heart, made her a burlesque bow.

"Dear," he said quietly, "I am complimenting your intelligence by

asking you to be my mistress without having first seduced you."

Mistress!

Her mind shouted the word, shouted that she had been vilely

insulted. But in that first startled moment she did not feel

insulted. She only felt a furious surge of indignation that he

should think her such a fool. He must think her a fool if he

offered her a proposition like that, instead of the proposal of

matrimony she had been expecting. Rage, punctured vanity and

disappointment threw her mind into a turmoil and, before she even

thought of the high moral grounds on which she should upbraid him,

she blurted out the first words which came to her lips--

"Mistress! What would I get out of that except a passel of brats?"

And then her jaw dropped in horror as she realized what she had

said. He laughed until he choked, peering at her in the shadows as

she sat, stricken dumb, pressing her handkerchief to her mouth.

"That's why I like you! You are the only frank woman I know, the

only woman who looks on the practical side of matters without

beclouding the issue with mouthings about sin and morality. Any

other woman would have swooned first and then shown me the door."

Scarlett leaped to her feet, her face red with shame. How could

she have said such a thing! How could she, Ellen's daughter, with

her upbringing, have sat there and listened to such debasing words

and then made such a shameless reply? She should have screamed.

She should have fainted. She should have turned coldly away in

silence and swept from the porch. Too late now!

"I will show you the door," she shouted, not caring if Melanie or

the Meades, down the street, did bear her. "Get out! How dare you

say such things to me! What have I ever done to encourage you--to

make you suppose. . . . Get out and don't ever come back here. I

mean it this time. Don't you ever come back here with any of your

piddling papers of pins and ribbons, thinking I'll forgive you.

I'll--I'll tell my father and he'll kill you!"

He picked up his hat and bowed and she saw in the light of the lamp

that his teeth were showing in a smile beneath his mustache. He

was not ashamed, he was amused at what she had said, and he was

watching her with alert interest.

Oh, he was detestable! She swung round on her heel and marched

into the house. She grabbed hold of the door to shut it with a

bang, but the hook which held it open was too heavy for her. She

struggled with it, panting.

"May I help you?" he asked.

Feeling that she would burst a blood vessel if she stayed another

minute, she stormed up the stairs. And as she reached the upper

floor, she heard him obligingly slam the door for her.

CHAPTER XX

As the hot noisy days of August were drawing to a close the

bombardment abruptly ceased. The quiet that fell on the town was

startling. Neighbors met on the streets and stared at one another,

uncertain, uneasy, as to what might be impending. The stillness,

after the screaming days, brought no surcease to strained nerves

but, if possible, made the strain even worse. No one knew why the

Yankee batteries were silent; there was no news of the troops

except that they had been withdrawn in large numbers from the

breastworks about the town and had marched off toward the south to

defend the railroad. No one knew where the fighting was, if indeed

there was any fighting, or how the battle was going if there was a

battle.

Nowadays the only news was that which passed from mouth to mouth.

Short of paper, short of ink, short of men, the newspapers had

suspended publication after the siege began, and the wildest rumors

appeared from nowhere and swept through the town. Now, in the

anxious quiet, crowds stormed General Hood's headquarters demanding