Gone with the Wind / Унесённые ветром

So it was true! She felt a sharp pain in her heart.

“Is it a spectacle you’ve been making of yourself – of all of us? Have you been running after a man who’s not in love with you, when you could have any of the bucks in the County?”

“I haven’t been running after him. It – it just surprised me.”

“It’s lying you are!” said Gerald, and then, peering at her face, he added kindly: “I’m sorry, daughter. But after all, you are nothing but a child and there’s lots of other beaux.

”

“Mother was only fifteen when she married you, and I’m sixteen,” said Scarlett.

“Your mother was different,” said Gerald. “She was never flighty like you. Now come, daughter, cheer up, and I’ll take you to Charleston[11 - Чарльстон, старейший и крупнейший город штата Южная Каролина] next week to visit your aunt and you’ll be forgetting about Ashley in a week. Besides, if you had any sense you’d have married Stuart or Brent Tarleton long ago.

Then the plantations will run together and Jim Tarleton and I will build you a fine house and —”

“Will you stop treating me like a child!” cried Scarlett. “I don’t want to go to Charleston or have a house or marry the twins. I only want —” She caught herself but not in time.

Gerald’s voice was strangely quiet and he spoke slowly.

“It’s only Ashley you’re wanting, and you’ll not be having him.

And if he wanted to marry you, ’twould be with misgivings that I’d say Yes, for all the fine friendship that’s between me and John Wilkes.” And, seeing her startled look, he continued: “I want my girl to be happy and you wouldn’t be happy with him.”

“Oh, I would! I would!”

“That you would not, daughter. Only when like marries like can there be any happiness.”

“Our people and the Wilkes are different,” he went on slowly, fumbling for words.

“They are queer folk, and it’s best that they marry their cousins and keep their queerness to themselves.”

“Why, Pa, Ashley is not —”

“I said nothing against the lad, for I like him. And when I say queer, it’s not crazy I’m meaning. But it’s neither heads nor tails I can make of most he says[12 - Но когда он говорит, я почти ничего не понимаю.].