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She had never seen her mother stirred from her austere placidity, nor her personal appointments anything but perfect, no matter what the hour of day or night. When Ellen was dressing for a ball or for guests or even to go to Jonesboro for Court Day, it frequently required two hours, two maids and Mammy to turn her out to her own satisfaction; but her swift toilets in times of emergency were amazing.
思嘉從未見過母親莊重安謙的神態被打擾的時候，她個人的衣著也總是那么整整嬤嬤，無論白天黑夜都毫無二致。每當愛倫為了參加舞會，接待客人或者到瓊斯博羅去旁聽法庭審判而梳妝時，那就得花上兩個鐘頭的時間，讓兩位女仆和嬤嬤幫著打扮，直到自己滿意為止；不過到了緊急時刻，她的梳妝功夫便驚人地加快了。
Scarlett, whose room lay across the hall from her mother’s, knew from babyhood the soft sound of scurrying bare black feet on the hardwood floor in the hours of dawn, the urgent tappings on her mother’s door, and the muffled, frightened negro voices that whispered of sickness and birth and death in the long row of whitewashed cabins in the quarters. As a child, she often had crept to the door and, peeping through the tiniest crack, had seen Ellen emerge from the dark room, where Gerald’s snores were rhythmic and untroubled, into the flickering light of an upheld candle, her medicine case under her arm, her hair smoothed neatly place, and no button on her basque unlooped.
思嘉的房間在她母親房間的對面，中間隔著個穿堂。她從小就熟悉了：在天亮前什么時候一個光著腳的黑人急促腳步在硬木地板上輕輕走過，接著是母親房門上匆忙的叩擊聲，然后是黑人那低沉而帶驚慌的耳語，報告本地區那長排白棚屋里有人生病了，死了，或者養了孩子。那時她還很小，常常爬到門口去，從狹窄的門縫里窺望，看到愛倫從黑暗的房間里出來，同時聽到里面杰拉爾德平靜而有節奏的鼾聲；母親讓黑人手中的蠟燭照著，臂下挾著藥品箱，頭發已梳得熨熨貼貼，緊身上衣的鈕扣也會扣好了。
It had always been so soothing to Scarlett to hear her mother whisper, firmly but compassionately, as she tiptoed down the hall: “Hush, not so loudly. You will wake Mr. O’Hara. They are not sick enough to die.”
思嘉聽到母親踮著腳尖輕輕走過廳堂，并堅定而憐憫地低聲說：“噓，別這么大聲說話。會吵醒奧哈拉先生的。他們還不至于病得要死吧。"此時，她總有一種安慰的感覺。
Yes, it was good to creep back into bed and know that Ellen was abroad in the night and everything was right.
是的，她知道愛倫已經摸黑外出，一切正常，便爬回去重新躺到床上睡了。
In the mornings, after all-night sessions at births and deaths, when old Dr. Fontaine and young Dr. Fontaine were both out on calls and could not be found to help her, Ellen presided at the breakfast table as usual, her dark eyes circled with weariness but her voice and manner revealing none of the strain. There was a steely quality under her stately gentleness that awed the whole household, Gerald as well as the girls, though he would have died rather than admit it.
早晨，經過搶救產婦和嬰兒的通宵忙亂----那時老方丹大夫和年輕的方丹大夫都已外出應診，沒法來幫她的忙----然后，愛倫又像通常那樣作為主婦在餐桌旁出現了，她那黝黑的眼圓略有倦色，可是聲音和神態都沒有流露絲毫的緊張感。她那莊重的溫柔下面有一種鋼鐵般的品性，它使包托杰拉爾德和姑娘們在內的全家無不感到敬畏，雖然杰拉爾德寧死也不愿承認這一點。
