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Sometimes when Scarlett tiptoed at night to kiss her tall mother’s cheek, she looked up at the mouth with its too short, too tender upper lip, a mouth too easily hurt by the world, and wondered if it had ever curved in silly girlish giggling or whispered secrets through long nights to intimate girl friends. But no, that wasn’t possible. Mother had always been just as she was, a pillar of strength, a fount of wisdom, the one person who knew the answers to everything.
思嘉有时夜里轻轻走去亲吻高个子母亲的面颊，她仰望着那张上唇显得太短太柔嫩的嘴，那张太容易为世人所伤害的嘴，她不禁暗想它是否也曾像娇憨的姑娘那样格格地笑过，或者同知心的女友通宵达旦喁喁私语。可是，不，这是不可能的。母亲从来就是现在这个模样，是一根力量的支柱，一个智慧的源泉，一位对任何问题都能够解答的人。
But Scarlett was wrong, for, years before, Ellen Robillard of Savannah had giggled as inexplicably as any fifteen-year-old in that charming coastal city and whispered the long nights through with friends, exchanging confidences, telling all secrets but one. That was the year when Gerald O’Hara, twenty-eight years older than she, came into her life—the year, too, when youth and her black-eyed cousin, Philippe Robillard, went out of it. For when Philippe, with his snapping eyes and his wild ways, left Savannah forever, he took with him the glow that was in Ellen’s heart and left for the bandy-legged little Irishman who married her only a gentle shell.
但是思嘉错了，因为多年以前，萨凡纳州的爱伦·罗毕拉德也曾像那个迷个的海滨城市里的每一位１５岁的姑娘那样格格地笑过，也曾同朋友们通宵达旦喁喁私语，互谈理想，倾诉衷肠，只有一个秘密除外。就是在那一年，比她大２８岁的杰拉尔德·奥哈拉闯进了她的生活----也是那一年，青春和她那黑眼睛表兄菲利普·罗毕拉德从她的生活中消退了。 因为，当菲利普连同他那双闪闪发光的眼睛和那种放荡不羁的习性永远离开萨凡纳时，他把爱伦心中的光辉也带走了，只给后来娶她的这位罗圈腿矮个儿爱尔兰人留下了一个温驯的躯壳。
But that was enough for Gerald, overwhelmed at his unbelievable luck in actually marrying her. And if anything was gone from her, he never missed it. Shrewd man that he was, he knew that it was no less than a miracle that he, an Irishman with nothing of family and wealth to recommend him, should win the daughter of one of the wealthiest and proudest families on the Coast. For Gerald was a self-made man.
不过对杰拉尔德这也就够了，他还因为真正娶上了她这一难以相信的幸运而吓坏了呢。而且，如果她身上失掉了什么，他也从不觉得可惜。他是个精明人，懂得像他这样一个既无门第又无财产但好吹嘘的爱尔兰人，居然娶到海滨各洲中最富有最荣耀人家的女儿，也算得上是一个奇迹了。要知道，杰拉尔德是个白手起家的人。
