Ashley: Oh, mostly of life becoming too real for me, I suppose. Not that I mind splitting rails but I do mind very much losing the beauty of that life I loved. If the war hadn't come, I'd have spent my life happily buried at Twelve Oaks. But the war did come. I saw my boyhood friends blown to bits. I saw men crumple up in agony when I shot them. And now I find myself in a world which for me is worse than death. A world in which there's no place for me. I can never make you understand because you don't know the meaning of fear. You never mind facing realities and you never want to escape from them as I do.
Scarlett: Escape? Oh, Ashley, you're wrong. I do want to escape, too. I'm so very tired of it all. I've struggled for food and for money. I've weeded and hoed and picked cotton until I can't stand it another minute. I tell you, Ashley, the South is dead. It's dead. The Yankees and the carpetbaggers have got it and there's nothing left for us. Oh, Ashley let's run away. We'd go to Mexico. They want officers in the Mexican Army. We could be so happy there. I'd work for you, I'd do anything for you. You know you don't love Melanie. You told me you loved me that day at Twelve Oaks. And anyway, Melanie can't Dr. Meade told me she couldn't have any more children and I could give you.
Ashley: Can't we ever forget that day at Twelve Oaks?
Scarlett: Do you think I could ever forget it? Have you forgotten it? Can you honestly say you don't love me?
Ashley: No. I don't love you.
Scarlett: It's a lie!
Ashley: Even if it is, do you think I'd leave Melanie and the baby, break Melanie's heart? You couldn't leave your father and the girls.
Scarlett quote: I could leave them. I'm sick of them. I'm tired of them.
Ashley: Yes, you're sick and tired. That's why you're talking this way. You've carried the load for all of us but from now on I'm going to be more help to you, I promise.
Scarlett: There's only one way you can help me. Take me away. There's nothing to keep us here. Nothing.
Ashley: Nothing except honor. Oh, please, Scarlett. Please, dear, you mustn't cry. You mustn't. Please, my brave dear, you mustn't.
Scarlett: You do love me, you do love me. Say it, say it.
Ashley: Don't, don't.
Scarlett: You love me, you love me.
Ashley: We won't do this, I tell you. It won't happen again. I'm going to take Melanie and the baby, and go.
Scarlett: Say it, you love me.
Ashley: All right, I'll say it. I love your courage and your stubbornness. So much that I could have forgotten the best wife a man ever had. But, Scarlett, I'm not going to forget her.
Scarlett: Then there's nothing left for me. Nothing to fight for. Nothing to live for.
Ashley: Yes, there is something. Something you love better than me though you may not know it. Tara!
Scarlett: Yes, I still have this. You needn't go. I won't have you all starve simply because I threw myself at your head. It won't happen again.
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