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

She must have seen something of this in my expression, for she turned abruptly away and ran up the porch steps into the house. I sat down for a few minutes with my head in my hands, until I heard the phone taken up inside and the butler’s voice calling a taxi. Then I walked slowly down the drive away from the house, intending to wait by the gate.

I hadn’t gone twenty yards when I heard my name and Gatsby stepped from between two bushes into the path. I must have felt pretty weird by that time, because I could think of nothing except the luminosity of his pink suit under the moon.

�What are you doing?’ I inquired.

�Just standing here, old sport.’

Somehow, that seemed a despicable occupation. For all I knew he was going to rob the house in a moment; I wouldn’t have been surprised to see sinister faces, the faces of �Wolfshiem’s people’, behind him in the dark shrubbery.

�Did you see any trouble on the road?’ he asked after a minute.

�Yes.’

He hesitated.

�Was she killed?’

�Yes.’

�I thought so; I told Daisy I thought so. It’s better that the shock should all come at once. She stood it pretty well.’

He spoke as if Daisy’s reaction was the only thing that mattered.

�I got to West Egg by a side road,’ he went on, �and left the car in my garage. I don’t think anybody saw us, but of course I can’t be sure.’

I disliked him so much by this time that I didn’t find it necessary to tell him he was wrong.

�Who was the woman?’ he inquired.

�Her name was Wilson. Her husband owns the garage. How the devil did it happen?’

�Well, I tried to swing the wheel – ’ He broke off, and suddenly I guessed at the truth.

�Was Daisy driving?’

�Yes,’ he said after a moment, �but of course I’ll say I was. You see, when we left New York she was very nervous and she thought it would steady her to drive – and this woman rushed out at us just as we were passing a car coming the other way.

It all happened in a minute, but it seemed to me that she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew. Well, first Daisy turned away from the woman toward the other car, and then she lost her nerve and turned back. The second my hand reached the wheel I felt the shock – it must have killed her instantly.’

�It ripped her open —’

�Don’t tell me, old sport.’ He winced. �Anyhow – Daisy stepped on it.