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Seeing that he was employing familiar maneuvers to extricate himself from unpleasant conversation, she slipped her arm through his and said: “I was waiting for you. I didn’t know you would be so late. I just wondered if you had bought Dilcey.”
她看到父親在玩弄他慣用的手法來回避眼前一次不愉快的談話，便輕輕挽住他的胳臂，一邊說：“我在等你呢！沒想到你會這么晚才回來。我還以為你把迪爾茜買下來了。”
“Bought her I did, and the price has ruined me. Bought her and her little wench, Prissy. John Wilkes was for almost giving them away, but never will I have it said that Gerald O’Hara used friendship in a trade. I made him take three thousand for the two of them.”
“買是買下來了，可價錢真要了我的命。買了她和她的小女兒百里茜。約翰·威爾克斯幾乎想把她們送掉，可我決不讓人家說杰拉爾德·奧哈拉在買賣中憑友情占了便宜。我叫他把兩人共賣了三千。”
“In the name of Heaven, Pa, three thousand! And you didn’t need to buy Prissy!”
“爸爸，我的天，三千哪！再說，你也用不著買百里茜呀！”
“Has the time come when me own daughters sit in judgment on me?” shouted Gerald rhetorically. “Prissy is a likely little wench and so—”
“難道該讓我自己的女兒公然來評判我？"杰拉爾德用幽默的口吻喊道：“百里茜是個蠻可愛的小女兒，所以----”
“I know her. She’s a sly, stupid creature,” Scarlett rejoined calmly, unimpressed by his uproar. “And the only reason you bought her was because Dilcey asked you to buy her.”
“我知道。她是個又鬼又笨的小家伙，”思嘉不顧父親的吼叫，只平靜地接下去說。“而且，你買下她的主要理由是，迪爾茜央求你買她。”
Gerald looked crestfallen and embarrassed, as always when caught in a kind deed, and Scarlett laughed outright at his transparency.
杰拉爾德似乎倒了威風，顯得很尷尬，就像他平常做好事時給抓住了那樣，這時思嘉便樂呵呵地笑話其他那偽裝的坦率來了。
“Well, what if I did? Was there any use buying Dilcey if she was going to mope about the child? Well, never again will I let a darky on this place marry off it. It’s too expensive. Well, come on, Puss, let’s go in to supper.”
“不過，就算我這樣做了又怎么樣？只買來迪爾茜，要是她整天惦記孩子，又有什么用呢？好了，從此我再也不讓這里的黑小子跟別處的女人結婚了。那太費錢。來吧，淘氣包，咱們進屋去吃晚飯。"
