Великий Гэтсби / The Great Gatsby

Wilson’s lap, where she fondled the weather-proof coat with rapture.

�Is it a boy or a girl?’ she asked delicately.

�That dog? That dog’s a boy.’

�It’s a bitch,’ said Tom decisively. �Here’s your money. Go and buy ten more dogs with it.’

We drove over to Fifth Avenue, warm and soft, almost pastoral, on the summer Sunday afternoon. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a great flock of white sheep turn the corner.

�Hold on,’ I said, �I have to leave you here.

’

�No, you don’t,’ interposed Tom quickly. �Myrtle’ll be hurt if you don’t come up to the apartment. Won’t you, Myrtle?’

�Come on,’ she urged. �I’ll telephone my sister Catherine. She’s said to be very beautiful by people who ought to know.’

�Well, I’d like to, but –’

We went on, cutting back again over the Park toward the West Hundreds[36 - the West Hundreds – Сотые улицы на западе Нью-Йорка]. At 158th Street the cab stopped at one slice in a long white cake of apartment-houses.

Throwing a regal homecoming glance around the neighbourhood, Mrs. Wilson gathered up her dog and her other purchases, and went haughtily in.

�I’m going to have the McKees come up,’ she announced as we rose in the elevator. �And, of course, I got to call up my sister, too.’

The apartment was on the top floor – a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath. The living-room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles[37 - Versailles – Версальский дворец, бывшая резиденция французских королей; построен в 1631–1634 гг.

в городе Версаль в 16 км к юго-западу от Парижа]. The only picture was an over-enlarged photograph, apparently a hen sitting on a blurred rock. Looked at from a distance, however, the hen resolved itself into a bonnet, and the countenance of a stout old lady beamed down into the room. Several old copies of Town Tattle lay on the table together with a copy of Simon Called Peter[38 - Simon Called Peter – название популярного романа начала 1920-х гг.; название отсылает к св.