"Feel better now? Then let's get to the bottom of this. You say if you had it to do over again, you'd do it differently. But would you? Think, now. Would you?"
"Well --"
"No, you'd do the same things again. Did you have any other choice?"
"No."
"Then what are you sorry about?"
"I was so mean and now he's dead."
"And if he wasn't dead, you'd still be mean. As I understand it, you are not really sorry for marrying Frank and bullying him and inadvertently causing his death. You are only sorry because you are afraid of going to hell. Is that right?"
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"Well -- that sounds so mixed up."
"Your ethics are considerably mixed up too. You are in the exact position of a thief who's been caught red handed and isn't sorry he stole but is terribly, terribly sorry he's going to jail."
"A thief --"
"Oh, don't be so literal! In other words if you didn't have this silly idea that you were damned to hell fire eternal, you'd think you were well rid of Frank."
"Oh, Rhett!"
"Oh, come! You are confessing and you might as well confess the truth as a decorous lie. Did your -- er -- conscience bother you much when you offered to -- shall we say -- part with that jewel which is dearer than life for three hundred dollars?"
The brandy was spinning in her head now and she felt giddy and a little reckless. What was the use in lying to him? He always seemed to read her mind.
"I really didn't think about God much then -- or hell. And when I did think -- well, I just reckoned God would understand."
"But you don't credit God with understanding why you married Frank?"
"Rhett, how can you talk so about God when you know you don't believe there is one?"
"But you believe in a God of Wrath and that's what's important at present. Why shouldn't the Lord understand? Are you sorry you still own Tara and there aren't Carpetbaggers living there? Are you sorry you aren't hungry and ragged?"
"Oh, no!"
"Well, did you have any alternative except marrying Frank?"
"No."
"He didn't have to marry you, did he? Men are free agents. And he didn't have to let you bully him into doing things he didn't want to, did he?"
"Well --"
"Scarlett, why worry about it? If you had it to do over again you would be driven to the lie and he to marrying you. You would still have run yourself into danger and he would have had to avenge you. If he had married Sister Sue, she might not have caused his death but she'd probably have made him twice as unhappy as you did. It couldn't have happened differently."
"But I could have been nicer to him."
"You could have been -- if you'd been somebody else. But you were born to bully anyone who'll let you do it. The strong were made to bully and the weak to knuckle under. It's all Frank's fault for not beating you with a buggy whip. ... I'm surprised at you, Scarlett, for sprouting a conscience this late in life. Opportunists like you shouldn't have them."
"What is an oppor -- what did you call it?"
"A person who takes advantage of opportunities."
"Is that wrong?"