On an afternoon of the following week, Scarlett came home from the hospital weary and indignant. —
一个下午的下周，斯嘉丽疲倦而愤慨地从医院回到家。 —

She was tired from standing on her feet all morning and irritable because Mrs. Merriwether had scolded her sharply for sitting on a soldier’s bed while she dressed his wounded arm. —
她因为早上站立了一整个早上而感到疲倦，因为梅里韦瑟夫人因为她坐在一个士兵的床上给他包扎受伤的胳膊而严厉地责备她，她感到很烦躁。 —

Aunt Pitty and Melanie, bonneted in their best, were on the porch with Wade and Prissy, ready for their weekly round of calls. —
婶婶庇蒂和梅拉妮戴着他们最好的帽子，和韦德和普里希一起站在门廊上，准备进行他们每周的拜访。 —

Scarlett asked to be excused from accompanying them and went upstairs to her room.
斯嘉丽请求允许不陪同他们一起去，然后上楼去了她的房间。

When the last sound of carriage wheels had died away and she knew the family was safely out of sight, she slipped quietly into Melanie’s room and turned the key in the lock. —
当最后一辆马车的声音消失了，她知道家人们已经安全远离了她的视线，她悄悄地走进了梅拉妮的房间，转动了锁。 —

It was a prim, virginal little room and it lay still and warm in the slanting rays of the four-o’clock sun. —
这是一个规矩而纯洁的小房间，它躺在斜射下来的四点钟的太阳光中，安静而温暖。 —

The floors were glistening and bare except for a few bright rag rugs, and the white walls unornamented save for one corner which Melanie had fitted up as a shrine.
地板闪闪发光，只有几张亮丽的地毯，白墙没有装饰，除了梅拉妮布置成神龛的一个角落。

Here, under a draped Confederate flag, hung the gold-hilted saber that Melanie’s father had carried in the Mexican War, the same saber Charles had worn away to war. —
在一个垂下来的南军旗帜下，悬挂着梅拉妮的父亲在墨西哥战争中使用过的握柄镶金的佩剑，正是查尔斯也曾佩戴着它去战场。 —

Charles’ sash and pistol belt hung there too, with his revolver in the holster. —
查尔斯的腰带和手枪皮带也挂在那里，手枪放在枪套里。 —

Between the saber and the pistol was a daguerreotype of Charles himself, very stiff and proud in his gray uniform, his great brown eyes shining out of the frame and a shy smile on his lips.
在佩剑和手枪中间是查尔斯本人的一张光板照，他穿着灰色制服，高傲而庄重，那头棕色的大眼睛从画框里放射出光芒，嘴角带着羞涩的微笑。

Scarlett did not even glance at the picture but went unhesitatingly across the room to the square rosewood writing box that stood on the table beside the narrow bed. —
斯嘉丽没有看一眼那张照片，而是毫不犹豫地走到靠近窄床的桌子旁的方形红木写字盒。 —

From it she took a pack of letters tied together with a blue ribbon, addressed in Ashley’s hand to Melanie. —
她从盒子里拿出一叠用蓝丝带系在一起的信，上面是阿什利亲手写给梅拉妮的地址。 —

On the top was the letter which had come that morning and this one she opened.
最上面的是早上来的那封信，她打开了这封信。

When Scarlett first began secretly reading these letters, she had been so stricken of conscience and so fearful of discovery she could hardly open the envelopes for trembling. —
斯嘉丽刚开始偷偷阅读这些信时，良心上的愧疚和对被发现的恐惧让她几乎无法打开信封，她的手都颤抖着。 —

Now, her never- too-scrupulous sense of honor was dulled by repetition of the offense and even fear of discovery had subsided. —
现在，她那曾经不太纯洁的荣誉感因为再次犯错误而变得麻木了，甚至对被发现的恐惧也消退了。 —

Occasionally, she thought with a sinking heart, “What would Mother say if she knew?” —
有时，她心里沉重地想，”如果妈妈知道了会怎么说呢？” —

She knew Ellen would rather see her dead than know her guilty of such dishonor. —
她知道艾伦宁愿看到自己死去，也不愿知道她犯下如此耻辱的行为。 —

This had worried Scarlett at first, for she still wanted to be like her mother in every respect. —
一开始，这让斯嘉丽很担心，因为她仍然希望在各方面都像她母亲一样。 —

But the temptation to read the letters was too great and she put the thought of Ellen out of her mind. —
但是读这些信件的诱惑太大了，她将艾伦的想法排除在脑外。 —

She had become adept at putting unpleasant thoughts out of her mind these days. —
如今，她已经熟练地将不愉快的想法排除在脑外。 —

She had learned to say, “I won’t think of this or that bothersome thought now. —
她学会了说，“我现在不会考虑这些烦人的想法。我明天再考虑。”通常当明天来临时，这个想法要么根本不再发生，要么因为拖延而减弱了。 —

I’ll think about it tomorrow.” Generally when tomorrow came, the thought either did not occur at all or it was so attenuated by the delay it was not very troublesome. —
所以阿什利的信件问题并没有让她感到很沉重的良心负担。 —

So the matter of Ashley’s letters did not lie very heavily on her conscience.
因此，对阿什利的信件的事情并没有给她带来太大负担的良心。

Melanie was always generous with the letters, reading parts of them aloud to Aunt Pitty and Scarlett. But it was the part she did not read that tormented Scarlett, that drove her to surreptitious reading of her sister-in-law’s mail. —
梅兰妮总是大方地给信读出来，把其中的一些部分大声念给阿姨皮蒂和斯嘉丽听。但正是她没有读出来的那一部分折磨着斯嘉丽，迫使她偷偷地读她嫂嫂的信。 —

She had to know if Ashley had come to love his wife since marrying her. —
她必须知道自从与她结婚以来，阿什利是否爱上了他的妻子。 —

She had to know if he even pretended to love her. —
她必须知道他是否假装爱她。 —

Did he address tender endearments to her? —
他是否给她温柔的称呼？ —

What sentiments did he express and with what warmth?
他表达了什么样的情感，并带着什么样的热情？

She carefully smoothed out the letter.
她小心翼翼地抚平了这封信。

Ashley’s small even writing leaped up at her as she read, “My dear wife,” and she breathed in relief. —
她读到了阿什利小而整齐的字迹，那里写着，“我亲爱的妻子”，她松了一口气。 —

He wasn’t calling Melanie “Darling” or “Sweetheart” yet.
他还没有称呼梅兰妮为“亲爱的”或“甜心”。

“My Dear wife: You write me saying you are alarmed lest I be concealing my real thoughts from you and you ask me what is occupying my mind these days—”
“我亲爱的妻子：你给我写信说你担心我向你隐瞒了真实的想法，并询问我这些天在想些什么——”

“Mother of God!” thought Scarlett, in a panic of guilt. “‘Concealing his real thoughts.’ —
“天哪！”斯嘉丽心中惊恐地想道。“‘隐瞒真实想法’。” —

Can Melly have read his mind? Or my mind? —
梅丽难道已经读懂了他的心思？还是我的心思？ —

Does she suspect that he and I—”
她怀疑他和我——

Her hands trembled with fright as she held the letter closer, but as she read the next paragraph she relaxed.
她紧张地颤抖着，把信靠近了一些，但是当她读到下一段时，她放松了下来。

“Dear Wife, if I have concealed aught from you it is because I did not wish to lay a burden on your shoulders, to add to your worries for my physical safety with those of my mental turmoil. —
“亲爱的妻子，如果我对你隐瞒了什么，那是因为我不想给你增加负担，让你的担忧不仅是我身体上的安全，还有我的精神困扰。 —

But I can keep nothing from you, for you know me too well. Do not be alarmed. I have no wound. —
但是我不能对你隐瞒任何事情，因为你太了解我了。不要惊慌。我没有受伤。 —

I have not been ill. I have enough to eat and occasionally a bed to sleep in. —
我没有生病。我有足够的食物，偶尔有个床可以睡觉。 —

A soldier can ask for no more. But, Melanie, heavy thoughts lie on my heart and I will open my heart to you.
一个士兵不能再要求更多了。但是，梅拉妮，我的心里沉重的想法，我将向你敞开心扉。

“These summer nights I lie awake, long after the camp is sleeping, and I look up at the stars and, over and over, I wonder, ‘Why are you here, Ashley Wilkes? —
“这些夏夜，营地熟睡之后，我躺在床上，望着星星，一遍又一遍地想着，‘你为什么在这里，阿什利·威尔克斯？ —

What are you fighting for?’
你为什么在战斗呢？’

“Not for honor and glory, certainly. War is a dirty business and I do not like dirt. —
“肯定不是为了荣誉和光荣。战争是肮脏的事情，我不喜欢肮脏。 —

I am not a soldier and I have no desire to seek the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s mouth. —
我不是个战士，我也不想在炮口中追求虚浮的声望。” —

Yet, here I am at the wars—whom God never intended to be other than a studious country gentleman. —
然而，我现在却身处战争之中 - 上帝从未打算让我成为别的人，只是一个勤奋的乡村绅士。 —

For, Melanie, bugles do not stir my blood nor drums entice my feet and I see too clearly that we have been betrayed, betrayed by our arrogant Southern selves, believing that one of us could whip a dozen Yankees, believing that King Cotton could rule the world. —
因为梅拉妮，军号并不能激起我的热血，战鼓也不能引诱我迈开脚步，我太清楚我们被背叛了，被我们那自大的南方人所欺骗，他们相信我们中的任何一位都能打败十几个北方人，相信棉花王国可以统治世界。 —

Betrayed, too, by words and catch phrases, prejudices and hatreds coming from the mouths of those highly placed, those men whom we respected and revered—’King Cotton, Slavery, States’ Rights, Damn Yankees.’
还被来自那些高层人物口中的言辞和俚语、偏见和仇恨所背叛，那些我们尊敬和崇敬的人们 - “棉花王国，奴隶制，州权利，该死的北方佬”。

“And so when I lie on my blanket and look up at the stars and say ‘What are you fighting for?’ —
“所以当我躺在我的毯子上仰望星空并问道‘你们在为什么而战？’ —

I think of States’ Rights and cotton and the darkies and the Yankees whom we have been bred to hate, and I know that none of these is the reason why I am fighting. —
我想到了州权利、棉花、黑奴和我们被灌输仇恨的北方佬，我知道这些都不是我战斗的原因。 —

Instead, I see Twelve Oaks and remember how the moonlight slants across the white columns, and the unearthly way the magnolias look, opening under the moon, and how the climbing roses make the side porch shady even at the hottest noon. —
然而，我看到了“Twelve Oaks”，记得月光斜射在白色柱子上的方式，记得献媚开放的木兰花在月下，还记得攀爬的玫瑰使得侧廊在最炎热的中午也有阴凉。 —

And I see Mother, sewing there, as she did when I was a little boy. —
我看到母亲在那里缝纫，就像我还是个小男孩时一样。 —

And I hear the darkies coming home across the fields at dusk, tired and singing and ready for supper, and the sound of the windlass as the bucket goes down into the cool well. —
我听到黑人在黄昏时分从田野上回家，疲惫而充满歌声，准备吃晚餐，听到绞盘下降进入凉井的声音。 —

And there’s the long view down the road to the river, across the cotton fields, and the mist rising from the bottom lands in the twilight. —
还有一条长长的道路通向河流，穿过棉花地，暮色中底地上升起的薄雾。 —

And that is why I’m here who have no love of death or misery or glory and no hatred for anyone. —
这就是为什么我会来到这里，我既不热衷于死亡、苦难或荣耀，也不憎恨任何人。 —

Perhaps that is what is called patriotism, love of home and country. —
也许这就是所谓的爱国主义，对家和国家的热爱。 —

But Melanie, it goes deeper than that. For, Melanie, these things I have named are but the symbols of the thing for which I risk my life, symbols of the kind of life I love. —
但是梅拉妮，它比那还要深刻。因为，梅拉妮，我所提到的这些只是我冒着生命危险追求的事物的象征，是我喜爱的生活方式的象征。 —

For I am fighting for the old days, the old ways I love so much but which, I fear, are now gone forever, no matter how the die may fall. —
因为我为了我如此喜爱的旧日子而战斗，但我恐怕它们现在已经永远消失了，无论决局如何。 —

For, win or lose, we lose just the same.
因为无论胜利还是失败，我们都会同样失去。

“If we win this war and have the Cotton Kingdom of our dreams, we still have lost, for we will become a different people and the old quiet ways will go. —
“如果我们赢得这场战争，拥有我们梦寐以求的棉花王国，我们仍然失败了，因为我们将成为一个不同的民族，那些宁静的古老方式将消失。 —

The world will be at our doors clamoring for cotton and we can command our own price. —
世界将在我们的门口为棉花欢呼，我们可以定价。 —

Then, I fear, we will become like the Yankees, at whose money-making activities, acquisitiveness and commercialism we now sneer. —
然后，我担心我们会变得像那些现在我们蔑视的雅基一样，他们以他们的赚钱活动、欲望和商业主义为荣。 —

And if we lose, Melanie, if we lose!
如果我们失败了，梅拉妮，如果我们失败了！

“I am not afraid of danger or capture or wounds or even death, if death must come, but I do fear that once this war is over, we will never get back to the old times. —
我不害怕危险、被俘、受伤，甚至死亡，如果死亡必须来临，但我担心一旦这场战争结束，我们将永远回不到过去。 —

And I belong in those old times. I do not belong in this mad present of killing and I fear I will not fit into any future, try though I may. —
我属于那些旧时光。我不属于这个充满杀戮的疯狂现在，我害怕我无论如何也不适应任何未来。 —

Nor will you, my dear, for you and I are of the same blood. —
你也一样，亲爱的，因为你和我有相同的血液。 —

I do not know what the future will bring, but it cannot be as beautiful or as satisfying as the past.
我不知道未来会带来什么，但它肯定不会像过去一样美丽和令人满足。

“I lie and look at the boys sleeping near me and I wonder if the twins or Alex or Cade think these same thoughts. —
“我躺着看着靠近我的男孩们睡觉，我想知道双胞胎或者亚历克斯或者凯德是否也有这样的想法。 —

I wonder if they know they are fighting for a Cause that was lost the minute the first shot was fired, for our Cause is really our own way of living and that is gone already. —
我想知道他们是否知道他们正在为一个在第一枪开火的那一刹那就已经失败的事业而战斗，因为我们的事业实际上是我们自己的生活方式，而那已经消失了。 —

But I do not think they think these things and they are lucky.
但我不认为他们会有这样的想法，他们是幸运的。

“I had not thought of this for us when I asked you to marry me. —
“当我向你求婚时，我没有为我们考虑到这一点。 —

I had thought of life going on at Twelve Oaks as it had always done, peacefully, easily, unchanging. We are alike, Melanie, loving the same quiet things, and I saw before us a long stretch of uneventful years in which to read, hear music and dream. —
我只想着在“十二橡树园”生活会像以往一样平静、轻松、不会变动。梅兰妮，我们相似，喜爱相同的宁静事物，我在前面看到了一段漫长的，平淡无奇的岁月，可以阅读、聆听音乐和梦想。 —

But not this! Never this! That this could happen to us all, this wrecking of old ways, this bloody slaughter and hate! —
但不是这样！绝不是这样！所有这一切的发生，这些旧有方式的破坏，这场血腥的屠杀和仇恨！ —

Melanie, nothing is worth it—States’ Rights, nor slaves, nor cotton. —
梅兰妮，没有什么东西值得这样做 - 地方权益，奴隶，或者棉花。” —

Nothing is worth what is happening to us now and what may happen, for if the Yankees whip us the future will be one of incredible horror. —
现在以及未来可能发生的事情都不值得，因为如果洋基队打败我们，未来将是难以想象的恐怖。 —

And, my dear, they may yet whip us.
而且，亲爱的，他们可能会打败我们。

“I should not write those words. I should not even think them. —
“我不应该写下这些话。甚至不应该想到。 —

But you have asked me what was in my heart, and the fear of defeat is there. —
但你问我内心的想法，害怕失败就在那里。 —

Do you remember at the barbecue, the day our engagement was announced, that a man named Butler, a Charlestonian by his accent, nearly caused a fight by his remarks about the ignorance of Southerners? —
你还记得在烧烤野餐上，我们订婚的那天，一个名叫巴特勒的人，因为他对南方人的无知发表了评论，几乎引发了一场争斗吗？ —

Do you recall how the twins wanted to shoot him because he said we had few foundries and factories, mills and ships, arsenals and machine shops? —
你还记得那对双胞胎想开枪打他，因为他说我们几乎没有铸造厂、工厂、磨坊、船只、军火库和机器作坊吗？ —

Do you recall how he said the Yankee fleet could bottle us up so tightly we could not ship out our cotton? —
你还记得他怎么说洋基队的舰队会把我们困得令人窒息，我们甚至无法出售棉花吗？ —

He was right. We are fighting the Yankees’ new rifles with Revolutionary War muskets, and soon the blockade will be too tight for even medical supplies to slip in. —
他是对的。我们正在用革命时期的火枪对抗洋基队的新步枪，很快封锁将变得太紧，连医疗物资也无法偷偷运进来了。 —

We should have paid heed to cynics like Butler who knew, instead of statesmen who felt—and talked. He said, in effect, that the South had nothing with which to wage war but cotton and arrogance. —
我们应该听从像巴特勒这样的愤世嫉俗者的警告，而不是听从那些感受和说话的政治家。他的意思是，南方除了棉花和傲慢之外，没有其他可以用来打仗的东西。 —

Our cotton is worthless and what he called arrogance is all that is left. —
我们的棉花一文不值，他所谓的傲慢就是我们所剩的一切。 —

But I call that arrogance matchless courage. If—”
但我认为那是无与伦比的勇气。如果——”

But Scarlett carefully folded up the letter without finishing it and thrust it back into the envelope, too bored to read further. —
但是，斯嘉丽把这封信仔细地折叠起来，没有读完，然后把它塞回信封里，因为她觉得读下去太无聊了。 —

Besides, the tone of the letter vaguely depressed her with its foolish talk of defeat. —
此外，信的语气让她感到有些压抑，因为信里愚蠢地谈论了失败。 —

After all, she wasn’t reading Melanie’s mail to learn Ashley’s puzzling and uninteresting ideas. —
毕竟，她并不是读梅拉妮的信来了解阿什利令人费解且无趣的观点。 —

She had had to listen to enough of them when he sat on the porch at Tara in days gone by.
过去，当他坐在塔拉庄园的门廊上时，她不得不听足够多的这些观点。

All she wanted to know was whether he wrote impassioned letters to his wife. So far he had not. —
她只想知道他是否给他的妻子写过慷慨激昂的信。到目前为止，他还没有写过。 —

She had read every letter in the writing box and there was nothing in any one of them that a brother might not have written to a sister. —
她已经读过写字框里的每封信，其中没有一封信是一个兄弟可以写给姐妹的。 —

They were affectionate, humorous, discursive, but not the letters of a lover. —
他们之间充满了深情，幽默和偏题的交流，但并非情人间的信函。 —

Scarlett had received too many ardent love letters herself not to recognize the authentic note of passion when she saw it. —
斯嘉丽自己已经收到过太多热烈的情书，所以她对真挚的激情笔迹能够一眼识破。 —

And that note was missing. As always after her secret readings, a feeling of smug satisfaction enveloped her, for she felt certain that Ashley still loved her. —
但这种笔迹却缺失了。每次秘密阅读完信后，她总会感到自鸣得意，因为她确信阿什利仍然爱着她。 —

And always she wondered sneeringly why Melanie did not realize that Ashley only loved her as a friend. —
她总是不屑地想着，为什么梅拉妮就是不明白阿什利只把她当做朋友而已。 —

Melanie evidently found nothing lacking in her husband’s messages but Melanie had had no other man’s love letters with which to compare Ashley’s.”
显然，梅拉妮认为她丈夫的信中没有丝毫缺憾，但是梅拉妮从来没有其他男人的情书来对比阿什利的。

“He writes such crazy letters,” Scarlett thought. —
“他写的信太荒唐了，”斯嘉丽心想。 —

“If ever any husband of mine wrote me such twaddle-twaddle, he’d certainly hear from me! —
“如果我有个丈夫也写这么一大堆废话，他肯定会惹上我的！” —

Why, even Charlie wrote better letters than these.”

She flipped back the edges of the letters, looking at the dates, remembering their contents. —
“噢，甚至连查理的信写得都比这些好。” —

In them there were no fine descriptive pages of bivouacs and charges such as Darcy Meade wrote his parents or poor Dallas McLure had written his old-maid sisters, Misses Faith and Hope. The Meades and McLures proudly read these letters all over the neighborhood, and Scarlett had frequently felt a secret shame that Melanie had no such letters from Ashley to read aloud at sewing circles.
在那些信中，没有像达西·密德写给他父母或可怜的达拉斯·麦克卢尔写给他的老处女姐妹费思和希望那样的精彩描写露天营地和冲锋的内容。密德家和麦克卢尔家都在邻里里自豪地朗读这些信件，而斯佳丽经常为梅拉妮没有阿什利那样的信件可以在缝纫圈中大声读出而感到内心的羞愧。

It was as though when writing Melanie, Ashley tried to ignore the war altogether, and sought to draw about the two of them a magic circle of timelessness, shutting out everything that had happened since Fort Sumter was the news of the day. —
仿佛在写给梅拉妮的时候，阿什利竭力忽视整个战争，试图在他们之间营造一个永恒的魔幻圈，将自佛特·萨姆特堡以来发生的一切都隔离在外。 —

It was almost as if he were trying to believe there wasn’t any war. —
他几乎就像是在努力相信没有战争的存在。 —

He wrote of books which he and Melanie had read and songs they had sung, of old friends they knew and places he had visited on his Grand Tour. Through the letters ran a wistful yearning to be back home at Twelve Oaks, and for pages he wrote of the hunting and the long rides through the still forest paths under frosty autumn stars, the barbecues, the fish fries, the quiet of moonlight nights and the serene charm of the old house.
他在信中写到他和梅兰妮曾读过的书和唱过的歌，他们所认识的旧朋友和他在大旅行中所参观的地方。信中透露出一种渴望回到十二橡树庄园的忧郁，他写了好几页关于打猎、在冰冷的秋天星空下骑乘长途马匹的经历、野炙肉烧烤、炸鱼活动、夜晚月光的宁静以及那座古老房子的宜人魅力。

She thought of his words in the letter she had just read: “Not this! Never this!” —
她想起了她刚读过的信里的那句话：“不是这个！永远不是这个！” —

and they seemed to cry of a tormented soul facing something he could not face, yet must face. —
这些信似乎流露出一个备受折磨的灵魂面对着一些他无法面对但又必须面对的事情。 —

It puzzled her for, if he was not afraid of wounds and death, what was it he feared? —
这让她感到困惑，因为如果他不害怕伤口和死亡，那他害怕什么呢？ —

Unanalytical, she struggled with the complex thought.
她欠缺分析能力，艰难地理解这个复杂的想法。

“The war disturbs him and he—he doesn’t like things that disturb him…Me, for instance. —
“战争让他困扰了，而他——他不喜欢那些让他困扰的事情……比如我。 —

..He loved me but he was afraid to marry me because—for fear I’d upset his way of thinking and living. —
他爱我，但他害怕和我结婚，害怕我打乱他的思维和生活方式。 —

No, it wasn’t exactly that he was afraid. Ashley isn’t a coward. —
不，他不是害怕。Ashley不是懦夫。 —

He couldn’t be when he’s been mentioned in dispatches and when Colonel Sloan wrote that letter to Melly all about his gallant conduct in leading the charge. —
他不可能是懦夫，因为他被提名在公报中提及，还有Sloan上校给梅丽写的那封信，赞扬他带领冲锋的英勇行为。 —

Once he’s made up his mind to do something, no one could be braver or more determined but— He lives inside his head instead of outside in the world and he hates to come out into the world and— Oh, I don’t know what it is! —
一旦他下定决心要做某事，就没有人比他更勇敢和坚决了，但是-他活在自己的思想里，而不是外在的世界，他讨厌走出来面对世界-哦，我不知道是什么原因！ —

If I’d just understood this one thing about him years ago, I know he’d have married me.”
如果我早些年就明白他的这个特点，我知道他肯定会娶我。

She stood for a moment holding the letters to her breast, thinking longingly of Ashley. —
她站了一会儿，将信放在胸前，对Ashley充满了思念。 —

Her emotions toward him had not changed since the day when she first fell in love with him. —
她对他的情感自从她第一次爱上他的那天起就没有改变过。 —

They were the same emotions that struck her speechless that day when she was fourteen years old and she had stood on the porch of Tara and seen Ashley ride up smiling, his hair shining silver in the morning sun. —
这些情感还是同样让她无言以对的情感，就像那天她十四岁时站在塔拉庄园的门廊上看到Ashley笑着骑着马朝她走来，他的金发在晨光中闪闪发光。 —

Her love was still a young girl’s adoration for a man she could not understand, a man who possessed all the qualities she did not own but which she admired. —
她的爱仍然是一个年轻女孩对一个她无法理解的男人的崇拜，他拥有她没有的所有品质，但她非常钦佩。 —

He was still a young girl’s dream of the Perfect Knight and her dream asked no more than acknowledgment of his love, went no further than hopes of a kiss.
他仍然是一个年轻女孩心中关于完美骑士的梦想，她的梦想只要求他爱的承认，不再追求更多，只是希望能得到一个吻。

After reading the letters, she felt certain he did love her, Scarlett, even though he had married Melanie, and that certainty was almost all that she desired. —
读完信后，她确信他爱她，可以肯定，尽管他已经娶了梅兰妮，而这种确信几乎是她所期望的一切。 —

She was still that young and untouched. Had Charles with his fumbling awkwardness and his embarrassed intimacies tapped any of the deep vein of passionate feeling within her, her dreams of Ashley would not be ending with a kiss. —
她仍然是那个年轻而纯洁的姑娘。如果查尔斯的笨拙和尴尬的亲密让她体验到内心深处的激情，她对阿什利的梦想就不会只以一个吻结束。 —

But those few moonlight nights alone with Charles had not touched her emotions or ripened her to maturity. —
但是那几个与查尔斯独处的月光之夜并没有触动她的情感，也没有让她成熟起来。 —

Charles had awakened no idea of what passion might be or tenderness or true intimacy of body or spirit.
查尔斯并没有唤醒她对激情、温柔或身体或精神上真正亲密的概念。

All that passion meant to her was servitude to inexplicable male madness, unshared by females, a painful and embarrassing process that led inevitably to the still more painful process of childbirth. —
对她来说，所有的激情只意味着对男性狂热的无理要求，这是女性不能分享的痛苦和尴尬的过程，最终只会导致更为痛苦的分娩过程。 —

That marriage should be like this was no surprise to her. —
她对婚姻应该是这样的并不感到意外。 —

Ellen had hinted before the wedding that marriage was something women must bear with dignity and fortitude, and the whispered comments of other matrons since her widowhood had confirmed this. —
伊丽莎曾在婚前暗示过婚姻是女人必须以尊严和坚毅来承受的事情，而自从她丧夫以来，其他已经婚后的妇女的窃窃私语也证实了这一点。 —

Scarlett was glad to be done with passion and marriage.
斯嘉丽为结束激情和婚姻而感到高兴。

She was done with marriage but not with love, for her love for Ashley was something different, having nothing to do with passion or marriage, something sacred and breathtakingly beautiful, an emotion that grew stealthily through the long days of her enforced silence, feeding on oft-thumbed memories and hopes.
她对婚姻已经结束，但对于爱情不曾停止，对阿什利的爱是不同的，与激情和婚姻无关，是一种神圣而令人叹为观止的美丽情感，在她被迫保持沉默的漫长日子里，这种情感悄然滋生，以经常翻阅的回忆和期望为食。

She sighed as she carefully tied the ribbon about the packet, wondering for the thousandth time just what it was in Ashley that eluded her understanding. —
她仔细地在包裹上系着丝带，叹息着，不禁再次思考，无论如何，阿什利的本质到底是什么让她难以理解。 —

She tried to think the matter to some satisfactory conclusion but, as always, the conclusion evaded her uncomplex mind. —
她试图对这个问题进行思考，希望能得出一个令人满意的结论，但如同往常一样，结论却总是避开了她的简单思维。 —

She put the letters back in the lap secretary and closed the lid. —
她把信放回了膝上的书桌里，合上了盖子。 —

Then she frowned, for her mind went back to the last part of the letter she had just read, to his mention of Captain Butler. —
接着，她皱起了眉头，因为她的思绪又回到了她刚刚读到的信的最后部分，回到了他提到巴特勒船长的地方。 —

How strange that Ashley should be impressed by something that scamp had said a year ago. —
真奇怪，Ashley竟然会对那个流氓一年前说的话印象深刻。 —

Undeniably Captain Butler was a scamp, for all that he danced divinely. —
毫无疑问，巴特勒船长是个无赖，尽管他跳舞跳得非常动人。 —

No one but a scamp would say the things about the Confederacy that he had said at the bazaar.
只有无赖才会在义卖会上说那些关于南方联盟的话。

She crossed the room to the mirror and patted her smooth hair approvingly. —
她穿过房间来到镜子前，满意地拍了拍自己顺滑的头发。 —

Her spirits rose, as always at the sight of her white skin and slanting green eyes, and she smiled to bring out her dimples. —
她看到自己白皙的肌肤和倾斜的绿眼睛，精神焕发，微笑着展现出她的酒窝。 —

Then she dismissed Captain Butler from her mind as she happily viewed her reflection, remembering how Ashley had always liked her dimples. —
然后她把巴特勒船长从思绪中驱散，快乐地欣赏着自己的倩影，回忆起Ashley一直喜欢她的酒窝。 —

No pang of conscience at loving another woman’s husband or reading that woman’s mail disturbed her pleasure in her youth and charm and her renewed assurance of Ashley’s love.
对于爱上别人的丈夫或阅读那个女人的信件，她没有因此产生一丝愧疚，这并没有妨碍她对自己青春和魅力的享受，也没有妨碍她重新确信了阿什利对她的爱。

She unlocked the door and went down the dim winding stair with a light heart. —
她打开门，心情舒畅地走下暗暗的蜿蜒楼梯。 —

Halfway down she began singing “When This Cruel War Is Over.”
下到一半时，她开始唱起《当这残酷战争结束》。