Seeing how miserable her eldest daughter is, her mother allows Scarlett to go to Atlanta, Georgia to stay with Melanie, although Scarlett really has Ashley in mind. While there, she sees Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), with whom she had the brief encounter with at the party. Rhett has become a privateer, smuggling goods to the south past the northern naval blockade. He makes Scarlett very uncomfortable, especially after Melanie offers her wedding ring to raise money for the army and Scarlett gives hers as well. Rhett respects Melanie deeply, but knows that Scarlett's offer of her wedding ring means nothing at all to her. But bored at wearing interminable black mourning clothes and being prevented from dancing, which she loves, she agrees to dance with him when he offers a large donation for "The Cause" for a dance with her, something which her elders think she should not do since her husband had just died and she is in mourning. But when Melanie thinks it would be all right because she would only be doing this for the donation, Scarlett dances with Rhett to the Virginia Reel.