A part of every day she spent at the mill, prying into everything, doing her best to check the thievery she felt sure was going on. But most of the time she was riding about the town, making the rounds of builders, contractors and carpenters , even calling on strangers she had heard might build at the future dates, cajoling them into promises of buying from her and her only.
prying into : 撬进去
contractors and carpenters : 承包商和木匠
cajoling : 哄骗
Soon she was a familiar sight on Atlanta's streets, sitting in her buggy beside the dignified , disapproving old darky driver, a lap robe pulled high about her, her little mittened hands clasped in her lap. Aunt Pitty had made her a pretty green mantelet which hid her figure and a green pancake hat which matched her eyes, and she always wore these becoming garments on her business calls. A faint dab of rouge on her cheeks and a fainter fragrance made her a charming picture, as long as she did not alight from buggy and show her figure. And there were seldom any need for this, for she smiled and beckoned and the men came quickly to the buggy and frequently stood bareheaded in the rain to talk business with her.
dignified : 庄重
a lap robe : 一条长袍
mitten : 无指手套
clasped : 抱住
beckoned : 招手
garments : 服装
dab of rouge : 少许胭脂
She was not the only one who had seen the opportunities for making money out of lumber, but she did not fear her competitiors. She knew with consicous pride in her own smartness that she was the equal of any of them. She was Gearld's own daughter and the shrewd trading instinct she had inherited was now sharpened by her needs.
shrewd : 精明
conscious : 精明的
At first the other dealers had laughed at her, laughed with good-natured contempt at the very idea of a woman in business. But now they did not laugh. They swore silently as they saw her ride by. The fact that she was a woman frequently worked in her favor, for she could upon occasion look so helpless and appealing that she melted hearts. With no difficulty whatever she could mutely convey the impression of a brave but timid lady, forced by brutal circumstance into a distasteful position, a helpless little lady who would probably starve if customers didn't buy her lumber. But when ladylike airs failed to get results she was coldly businesslike and willingly undersold her competitors at a loss to herself if it would bring her a new customer. She was not above selling a poor grade of lumber for the price of good lumber if she thought she would not be detected, and she had no scruples about blackguarding the other lumber dealers. With every appearance of reluctance at disclosing the unpleasant truth, she would sigh and tell prospective customers that her competitors' lumber was far too high in price, rotten, full of knot holes and in general of deplorably poor quality.
swore : 发誓
brutal : 野蛮的
The first time Scarlett lied in this fashion she felt disconcerted and guilty--disconcerted because the lie sprang so easily and naturally to her lips, guilty because the thought flashed into her mind: What would Mother say?
disconcerted : 不安
There was no doubt what Ellen would say to a daughter who told lies and engaged in sharp practices. She would be stunned and incredulous and would speak gentle words that stung despite their gentleness， would talk of honor and honesty and truth and duty to one's neighbor. Momentarily , Scarlett cringed as she pictured the look on her monther's face. And then the picture faded, blotted out by an impulse, hard, unscrupulous and greedy, which had been born in the lean days at Tara and was now strengthened by the present unceratinty of life. So she passed this milestone as she had passed others before it -- with a sigh that she was not as Ellen would like her to be, a shrug and the repetition of her unfailing charm: "I'll think of all this later."
incredulous : 怀疑的
stung : 刺痛的
But she never again thought of Ellen in connection with her business practices, never again regretted any means she used to take trade away from other lumber dealers. She knew she was perfectly safe in lying about them. Southern chivalry protected her. A southern lady could lie about a gentleman, but a southern gentleman could not lie about a lady or, worse still, call the lady a liar. Other lumberman could only fume inwardly and state heatedly, in the bosoms of their families, that they wished to God Mrs. Kennedy was a man for just about five minutes.
fume : 冒烟
inwardly : 暗自
One poor white who opearted a mill on the Decatur road did try to fight Scarlett with her own weapons, saying openly that she was a liar and a swindler . But it hurt him rather than helped, for everyone was appalled that even a poor white should say such shocking things about a lady of good family, even when the lady was conducting herself in such an unwomanly way. Scarlett bore his remarks with silent dignity and, as time went by, she turned all her attention to him and his customers. She undersold him so relentlessly and delivered, with secret groans, such an excellent quality of lumber to prove her probity that he was soon bankrupt . Then, to Frank's horror, she triumphantly bought his mill at her own price.
swindler : liar
appalled : shock
probity : 廉洁
bankrupt : 破产者
Once in her possession there arose the perplexing problem of finding a trustworthy man to put in charge of it. She did not want another man selling her lumber behind her back, but she thought it would be easy to weren't the streets full of men, some of them formerly rich, who were without work? The day never went by that Frank did not give money to some hungry ex-soldier or that Pitty and Cookie did not wrap up food for gaunt beggars .
possession : 所有权
perplexing : 复杂的
But Scarlett, for some reason she could not understand, did not want any of these. "I don't want men who haven't found something to do after a year," she thought. "If they haven't adjusted to peace yet, they couldn't adjust to me. And they all look so hangdog and licked. I don't want a man who's licked. I want somebody who's smart and energetic like Renny or Tommy Wellburn or Kells Whiting or one of the Simmons boys or--or any of that tribe. They haven't got that I-don't-care-about-anything look the soldiers had right after the surrender. They look like they cared a heap about a heap of things.
hangdog : 可鄙的
licked : 打败的
tribe : 部落
Once afternoon, Scarelett pullled up her buggy beside Rene Picard's pie wagon and hailed Rene and the crippled Tommy Wellburn, who was catching a ride home with her friend.
hailed : 欢呼
"Look here, Renny, why don't you come and work for me? Managing a mill is a sight more respectable than driving a pie wagon. I'd think you'd be ashamed."
"Me, I am dead to shame," grinned Rene. "Who would be respectable? All of my days I was respectable until ze war set me free lak ze darkies. Nevaire again must I be deegneefied and full of ennui.
"But you weren't raised to sell pies any more than Tommy was raised to wrastle with a bunch of wild Irish masons . My kind of work is more---"
masons : 泥瓦匠
"And I suppose you were raised to run a lumber mill," said Tommy, the corners of his mouth twitching. "Yes, I can just see little Scarlett at her mother's knee, lisping her lessons, 'Never sell good lumber if you can get a better price for bad."'
lisping : 口齿不清
Rene roared at this, his small monkey eyes dancing with glee as he whacked Tommy on his twisted back.
whacked : 疲惫不堪的
"Don't be impudent," said Scarlett coldly, for she saw little humor in Tommy's remark. "Of course, I wasn't raised to run a sawmill."
impudent : 厚颜无耻的
"I didn't mean to be impudent. But you are running a sawmill, whether you were raised to it or not. And running it very well, too. Well, none of us, as far as I can see, are doing what we intended to do right now, but I think we'll make out just the same. It's a poor person and a poor nation that sits down and cries because life isn't precisely what they expected to be. Why don't you pick up some enterprising Carpetbagger to work for you, Scarlett? The woods are full of them, God knows."
precisely : 恰恰
"I don't want a Carpetbagger. Carpetbagger will steal anything that isn't red hot or nailed down. If they amounted to anything they'd have stayed where they were, instead of coming down here to pick our bones. I want a nice man, from nick folks, who is smart and honest and energetic and--"
nailed : 固定的
"You don't want much. And you won't get it for the wage you're offering.
All the men of that description, barring the badly maimed ones, have already got something to do. They may be round pegs in squre holes but they've all got something to do. Something of their own that they'd rather do than work for a woman.
wage : 工资
barring : 禁止
maimed : 伤残的
"Men haven't got much sense, have they, when you get down to rock bottom?"
"Maybe not but they've got a heap of pride," said Tommy soberly.
"Pride! Pride taste awfully good, especially when the crust is flaky and you put meringue on it," said Scarlett tartly .
crust is flaky : 地壳很脆弱。
tartly : 尖锐的
The two men laughed, a bit unwillingly, and it seemed to Scarlett that they drew together in united masculine disapproval of her. What Tommy said was true, she thought, running over in her mind the menshe had approached and the ones she intended to approach. They were all busy, busy at something, working hard, working harder than they would have dreamed possible in the days before the war. They weren't doing want they wanted to do perhaps, or what was easiest to do, or what they had been reared to do, but they were doing something. Times was too hard for men to be choosy. And if they were sorrowing for lost hopes, longing for lost ways of living, no one knew it but them. And they were caring about life again, caring with the same urgency and the same violence that animated them before the warhad cut their lives in two.
masculine : 男性的