The Last Tycoon / Последний магнат. Книга для чтения на английском языке

From the moment we walked into the airport it had become plain that if we were stranded here we were stranded here together. (It wasn’t like the time I lost my boy – the time my boy played the piano with that girl Reina in a little New England farmhouse near Bennington, and I realized at last I wasn’t wanted. Guy Lombardo was on the air playing Top Hat and Cheek to Cheek, and she taught him the melodies. The keys falling like leaves and her hands splayed over his as she showed him a black chord.

I was a freshman then.)

When we went into the airport Mr. Schwartz was along with us, too, but he seemed in a sort of dream. All the time we were trying to get accurate information at the desk, he kept staring at the door that led out to the landing field, as if he were afraid the plane would leave without him. Then I excused myself for a few minutes and something happened that I didn’t see, but when I came back he and White were standing close together, White talking and Schwartz looking twice as much as if a great truck had just backed up over him.

He didn’t stare at the door to the landing field any more. I heard the end of Wylie White’s remark…

“ – I told you to shut up. It serves you right.[9 - It serves you right. – (разг.) Так тебе и надо.]”

“I only said —”

He broke off as I came up and asked if there was any news. It was then half-past two in the morning.

“A little,” said Wylie White.

“They don’t think we’ll be able to start for three hours anyhow, so some of the softies are going to a hotel. But I’d like to take you out to the Hermitage, Home of Andrew Jackson[10 - Andrew Jackson – Эндрю Джексон (1767–1845), американский генерал, 7-й президент США (1829–1837)].”

“How could we see it in the dark?” demanded Schwartz.

“Hell, it’ll be sunrise in two hours.

”

“You two go,” said Schwartz.

“All right – you take the bus to the hotel. It’s still waiting – he’s in there.” Wylie’s voice had a taunt in it. “Maybe it’d be a good thing.”

“No, I’ll go along with you,” said Schwartz hastily.

We took a taxi in the sudden country dark outside, and he seemed to cheer up. He patted my knee-cap encouragingly.

“I should go along,” he said, “I should be chaperone.