I see, I had forgotten that part or being naive hadn't released hugging someone was a huge deal. I was 13 when I read it.
Imagine how you would feel if you heard that your husband or wife had been caught tenderly embracing someone else.
Now imagine you knew that your husband or wife was infatuated with that person, rather than returning your love for him or her. This isn't even getting into the fact that it was set in a historical time when hugging someone who wasn't married to you
would be a big deal.
What about visiting Bell's? Was that just before they were married and not afterward?
Rhett visited Bell while he was married to Scarlett, but that was partly because Scarlett refused to have sex with him and partly because he knew Bell genuinely cared about him and respected him.
I think he was quite justified. If I were married to someone who didn't care about me and who constantly imagined another woman in my place when we were in bed together (which was what Scarlett did - she imagined being with Ashley instead of Rhett), I might also seek comfort from a man who really did want me.
What I found interesting was that the book made a distinction between physical infidelity and emotional infidelity. Rhett made it clear that if Scarlett had just had an itch that needed to be scratched, and if Ashley had done that and gotten it over with, that wouldn't have been so bad. But instead, what she gave Ashley was her heart and mind, neither of which he wanted or could appreciate - and both of which Rhett longed for.