«Великий Гэтсби» и другие лучшие произведения Ф.С. Фицджеральда

As a matter of fact you needn’t bother to ascertain. I ascertained. They’re real.’

�The books?’

He nodded.

�Absolutely real – have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real. Pages and – Here! Lemme show you.’

Taking our scepticism for granted, he rushed to the bookcases and returned with Volume One of the Stoddard Lectures[46 - Stoddard Lectures – popular illustrated lectures about various countries by John L.

Stoddard (1850–1931)].

�See!’ he cried triumphantly. �It’s a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco[47 - Belasco – David Belasco (1853–1931), American playwright, theatrical producer and innovator]. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too – didn’t cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect? ’

He snatched the book from me and replaced it hastily on its shelf, muttering that if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to collapse.

�Who brought you?’ he demanded. �Or did you just come? I was brought. Most people were brought.’

Jordan looked at him alertly, cheerfully, without answering.

�I was brought by a woman named Roosevelt,’ he continued. �Mrs. Claud Roosevelt. Do you know her? I met her somewhere last night. I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.

’

�Has it?’

�A little bit, I think. I can’t tell yet. I’ve only been here an hour. Did I tell you about the books? They’re real. They’re —’

�You told us. ’

We shook hands with him gravely and went back outdoors.

There was dancing now on the canvas in the garden, old men pushing young girls backward in eternal graceless circles, superior couples holding each other tortuously, fashionably, and keeping in the corners – and a great number of single girls dancing individualistically or relieving the orchestra for a moment of the burden of the banjo or the traps.

By midnight the hilarity had increased. A celebrated tenor had sung in Italian, and a notorious contralto had sung in jazz, and between the numbers people were doing �stunts’ all over the garden, while happy, vacuous bursts of laughter rose toward the summer sky.