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

I tell her she ought to leave it alone.’

�I do leave it alone,’ affirmed the accused hollowly.

�We heard you yelling, so I said to Doc Civet here: “There’s somebody that needs your help, Doc.”’

�She’s much obliged, I’m sure,’ said another friend, without gratitude, �but you got her dress all wet when you stuck her head in the pool.’

�Anything I hate is to get my head stuck in a pool,’ mumbled Miss Baedeker. �They almost drowned me once over in New Jersey.’

�Then you ought to leave it alone,’ countered Doctor Civet.

�Speak for yourself!’ cried Miss Baedeker violently. �Your hand shakes. I wouldn’t let you operate on me!’

It was like that. Almost the last thing I remember was standing with Daisy and watching the moving-picture director and his Star. They were still under the white-plum tree and their faces were touching except for a pale, thin ray of moonlight between. It occurred to me that he had been very slowly bending toward her all evening to attain this proximity, and even while I watched I saw him stoop one ultimate degree and kiss at her cheek.

�I like her,’ said Daisy, �I think she’s lovely.’

But the rest offended her – and inarguably, because it wasn’t a gesture but an emotion. She was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented �place’ that Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island fishing village – appalled by its raw vigour that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that horded its inhabitants along a short-cut from nothing to nothing.

I sat on the front steps with them while they waited for their car. It was dark here in front; only the bright door sent ten square feet of light volleying out into the soft black morning. Sometimes a shadow moved against a dressing-room blind above, gave way to another shadow, an indefinite procession of shadows, who rouged and powdered in an invisible glass.

�Who is this Gatsby anyhow?’ demanded Tom suddenly. �Some big bootlegger?’

�Where’d you hear that?’ I inquired.

�I didn’t hear it. I imagined it. A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know.’

�Not Gatsby,’ I said shortly.

He was silent for a moment. The pebbles of the drive crunched under his feet.

�Well, he certainly must have strained himself to get this menagerie together.