WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:05.120 Chapter three of The Great catsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. There was music 2 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:09.199 from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens, men 3 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:13.679 and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the 4 00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:18.320 stars. At high tide in the afternoon, I watched his guests diving from 5 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:21.679 the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of 6 00:00:21.719 --> 00:00:25.079 his beach, while his two motor boats slit the waters of the sound, 7 00:00:25.559 --> 00:00:31.399 drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. On weekends, his rolls Royce became an 8 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:36.560 omnibus bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long 9 00:00:36.600 --> 00:00:41.399 past midnight, while his station wagons scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet 10 00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:46.119 all trains. And on Mondays, eight servants, including an extra gardener, 11 00:00:46.359 --> 00:00:52.280 toiled all day with mops and scrubbing brushes and hammers and garden shears, repairing 12 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:57.240 the ravages of the night before. Every Friday, five crates of oranges and 13 00:00:57.359 --> 00:01:02.119 lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York. Every Monday, these same oranges 14 00:01:02.119 --> 00:01:06.840 and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves. There was 15 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:10.840 a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in 16 00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:15.519 half an hour if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler's 17 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:19.239 thumb. At least once a fortnight, a corps of caterers came down with 18 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:23.959 several hundred feet of canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of 19 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:32.079 Gatsby's enormous garden on buffet tables garnished with glistening ord'ruve, spiced baked hams, 20 00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:37.719 crowded against salads of Harlequin designs, and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a 21 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:42.079 dark gold. In the main hall, a bar with a real brass rail 22 00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:46.879 was set up and stocked with jins and liquors, and with cordials so long 23 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:51.079 forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another. 24 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:56.319 By seven o'clock, the orchestra has arrived, no thin five piece affair, 25 00:01:56.599 --> 00:02:00.439 but a whole pitiful of oboes and trombones and sack the phones and violas, 26 00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:06.920 and cornets and piccolos and low and high drums. The last swimmers have 27 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:10.240 come in from the beach, now and are dressing upstairs. The cars from 28 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:15.120 New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and 29 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:20.919 salons and verandahs are gaudy, with primary colors and hair bobbed in strange new 30 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:25.120 ways and shawls. Beyond the dreams of Castile, the bar is in full 31 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:30.319 swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air 32 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:37.000 is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo, and introductions forgotten on the 33 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:43.439 spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other's names. The 34 00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:46.439 lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the 35 00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:52.360 orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key 36 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:57.680 higher. Laughter is easier minute by minute, Spilled with prodigality, tipped out 37 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:02.039 at a cheerful word, the group change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, 38 00:03:02.120 --> 00:03:07.960 dissolve and form in the same breath. Already there are wanderers, confiding 39 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:12.560 girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable, become for 40 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:15.800 a sharp, joyous moment, the center of a group, and then excited 41 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:21.439 with triumph glide on through the sea, change of faces and voices and color 42 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:27.439 under the constantly changing light. Suddenly, one of these gypsies and trembling Opal 43 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:30.199 seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps and down for courage, and 44 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:37.159 moving her hands like Frisco, dances out alone on the canvas platform a momentary 45 00:03:37.240 --> 00:03:40.919 hush. The orchestra leader varies his rhythm obligingly for her, and there is 46 00:03:40.919 --> 00:03:46.520 a burst of chatter as the erroneous news goes around that she is Guilda Gray's 47 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:51.719 understudy from the follies. The party has begun. I believe that on the 48 00:03:51.719 --> 00:03:54.120 first night I went to Gatsby's house, I was one of the few guests 49 00:03:54.120 --> 00:03:59.639 who had actually been invited. People were not invited. They went there, 50 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:03.199 They got into automobiles which bore them out to Long Island, and somehow they 51 00:04:03.319 --> 00:04:08.719 ended up at Gadsby's door. Once there, they were introduced by somebody who 52 00:04:08.759 --> 00:04:13.240 knew Gatsby, and after that they conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior 53 00:04:13.319 --> 00:04:17.759 associated with an amusement park. Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby 54 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:21.399 at all. Came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its 55 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:28.279 own ticket of admission. I had been actually invited. A chauffeur and uniform 56 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:32.639 of Robin's egg Blue crossed my lawn early that Saturday morning with a surprisingly formal 57 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:38.800 note from his employer. The honor would be entirely Gatsbys, It said, 58 00:04:39.160 --> 00:04:44.879 if I would attend his little party that night. He had seen me several 59 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:48.600 times and had intended to call on me long before, but a peculiar combination 60 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:55.600 of circumstances had prevented it. Signed J. Gadsby in a majestic hand. 61 00:04:56.920 --> 00:05:00.000 Dressed up in white flannels, I went over to his lawn a little after 62 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:03.120 or seven and wandered around, rather ill at ease, among swirls and eddies 63 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:06.680 of people I didn't know. Though here and there was a face I had 64 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:12.600 noticed on the commuting train. I was immediately struck by the number of young 65 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:16.480 Englishmen dotted about, all well dressed, all looking a little hungry, and 66 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:23.079 all talking in low, earnest voices to solid and prosperous Americans. I was 67 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:28.920 sure that they were selling something bonds or insurance or automobiles. They were at 68 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:32.720 least agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity, and convinced that it 69 00:05:32.839 --> 00:05:38.040 was theirs for a few words in the right key. As soon as I 70 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:41.480 arrived, I made an attempt to find my host, but the two or 71 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:46.000 three people of whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed 72 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:50.120 way and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements that I slunk off in 73 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:55.240 the direction of the cocktail table, the only place in the garden where a 74 00:05:55.279 --> 00:06:00.839 single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone. I was on my way 75 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:05.079 to get roaring drunk from sheer embarrassment when Jordan Baker came out of the house 76 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:10.120 and stood at the head of the marble steps, leaning a little backward and 77 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:15.680 looking with contemptuous interest down into the garden. Welcome or not. I found 78 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:19.959 it necessary to attach myself to someone before I should begin to address cordial remarks 79 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:26.079 to the passer by. Hello, I roared, advancing toward her. My 80 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:30.959 voice seemed unnaturally loud across the garden. I thought you might be here, 81 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:34.480 she responded absently. As I came up, I remembered you lived next door 82 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:39.720 to She held my hand impersonally as a promise that she'd take care of me 83 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:43.720 in a minute, and gave ear to two girls and twin yellow dresses, 84 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:47.040 who stopped at the foot of the steps. Hello, they cried together. 85 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:53.279 Sorry you didn't win. That was for the golf tournament she had lost in 86 00:06:53.319 --> 00:06:57.199 the finals the week before. You don't know who we are, said one 87 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:00.480 of the girls in yellow. But we met you here about a month ago. 88 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:04.519 You've dyed your hair since then, remarked Jordan, and I started, 89 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:09.759 but the girls had moved casually on, and her remark was addressed to the 90 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:14.959 premature moon produced like the supper, no doubt, out of a caterer's basket. 91 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:18.720 With Jordan's slender, golden arm resting on mine, we descended the steps 92 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:24.160 and sauntered about the garden. A tray of cocktails floated at us through the 93 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:28.040 twilight, and we sat down at a table with the two girls in yellow 94 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:32.079 and three men, each one introduced to us as mister mumble. Do you 95 00:07:32.199 --> 00:07:35.720 come to these parties? Often, inquired Jordan of the girl beside her. 96 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:40.560 The last one was the one I met you at, answered the girl in 97 00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:45.279 an alert, confident voice. She turned to her companion. Wasn't it for 98 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:49.560 you, Lucille? It was for Lucille too. I like to come, 99 00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:54.120 Lucille said, I never care what I do, so long as I always 100 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:57.319 have a good time. When I was here last I tore my gown on 101 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:01.759 a chair and he asked me my name. In the inside of a week, 102 00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:05.360 I got a package from Cruriers with a new evening gown in it. 103 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:09.600 Did you keep it, asked Jordan. Sure I did. I was going 104 00:08:09.639 --> 00:08:13.279 to wear it tonight, but it was too big in the bust and had 105 00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:16.720 to be altered. It was gas blue with lavender beads. Two hundred and 106 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:22.759 sixty five dollars. There's something funny about a fellow to do a thing like 107 00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:28.399 that, said the other girl eagerly. He doesn't want any trouble with anybody 108 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:33.639 who doesn't, I inquired Gatsby. Somebody told me. The two girls and 109 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:39.320 Jordan leaned together confidentially. Somebody told me they thought he killed a man. 110 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:45.039 Once a thrill passed over all of us. The three mister mumbles bent forward 111 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:50.240 and listened eagerly. I don't think it's so much that, argued the seal 112 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:54.919 skeptically. It's more that he was a German spy during the war. One 113 00:08:54.919 --> 00:09:00.399 of the men nodded in confirmation. I heard that from a man who knew 114 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:03.360 all about him, grew up with him in Germany, he assured us positively. 115 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:07.320 Oh no, said the first girl. It couldn't be that, because 116 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:13.120 he was in the American Army during the war. As our credulity switched back 117 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:18.120 to her, she leaned forward with enthusiasm. You look at him sometimes when 118 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:22.120 he thinks nobody's looking at him. I'll bet he killed a man. She 119 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:28.240 narrowed her eyes and shivered. Lucille shivered. We all turned and looked around 120 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:33.679 for Gatsby. It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were 121 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:37.039 whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper 122 00:09:37.080 --> 00:09:43.120 about in this world. The first supper there would be another one after midnight 123 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:46.480 was now being served, and Jordan invited me to join her own party, 124 00:09:46.799 --> 00:09:50.440 who were spread around the table on the other side of the garden. There 125 00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:56.840 were three married couples in Jordan's escort. A persistent undergraduate given to violent innuendo, 126 00:09:56.200 --> 00:10:01.759 and obviously under the impression that sooner or lay Jordan was going to yield 127 00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:05.799 him up her person to a greater or lesser degree. Instead of rambling, 128 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:11.559 this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity and assumed to itself the function of representing 129 00:10:11.639 --> 00:10:16.759 the staid nobility of the countryside East Egg, condescending to West Egg, and 130 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:24.679 carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gaiety. Let's get out, whispered Jordan, 131 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:30.399 after a somehow wasteful and inappropriate half hour. This is much too polite for 132 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:33.879 me. We got up, and she explained that we were going to find 133 00:10:33.919 --> 00:10:37.080 the host. I had never met him, she said, and it was 134 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:43.200 making me uneasy. The undergraduate nodded in a cynical, melancholy way. The 135 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:48.000 bar where we glanced first was crowded, but Gatsby was not there. She 136 00:10:48.039 --> 00:10:52.320 couldn't find him from the top of the steps, and he wasn't on the 137 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:56.440 verandah. On a chance, we tried an important looking door and walked into 138 00:10:56.519 --> 00:11:03.759 a high Gothic library, paneled with carved English oak and probably transported complete from 139 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:09.960 some ruin overseas. A stout, middle aged man with enormous allied spectacles was 140 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:15.279 sitting somewhat drunk on the edge of a great table, staring with uneasy concentration 141 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:18.720 at the shelves of books. As we entered, he wheeled excitedly around and 142 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:24.720 examined Jordan from head to foot. What do you think, he demanded, 143 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:30.879 impetuously, about what. He waved his hand toward the bookshelves. About that, 144 00:11:31.639 --> 00:11:35.200 as a matter of fact, you'd needn't bother to ascertain. I ascertained. 145 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:43.519 They're real, the books, he nodded, Absolutely real, have pages 146 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:48.480 and everything. I thought they'd be a nice, durable cardboard. Matter of 147 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:56.200 fact, they're absolutely real pages. And here let me show you taking our 148 00:11:56.240 --> 00:12:01.039 skepticism for granted. He rushed to the bookcase and returned with volume one of 149 00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:07.879 the Stoddard lectures. See, he cried triumphantly. It's a bona fide piece 150 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:13.559 of printed matter. It fooled me. This fellow's a regular Blasco. It's 151 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:22.000 a triumph what thoroughness, what realism? Knew when to stop? Two? 152 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:26.039 Didn't cut the pages? But what do you want? What do you expect? 153 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:31.080 He snatched the book from me and replaced it hastily on its shelf, 154 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:35.200 muttering that if one brick was removed, the whole library was liable to collapse. 155 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:41.279 Who brought you, he demanded, or did you just come? I 156 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:46.879 was brought Most people were brought. Jordan looked at him alertly cheerfully, without 157 00:12:46.919 --> 00:12:52.960 answering. I was brought by a woman named Roosevelt. He continued, Missus 158 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:56.240 Claude Roosevelt. Do you know her? I met her somewhere last night. 159 00:12:56.960 --> 00:13:01.360 I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober 160 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:07.519 me up to sit in a library. Has it a little bit? I 161 00:13:07.559 --> 00:13:11.559 think? I can't tell you. I've only been here an hour. Did 162 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:16.639 I tell you about the books? They're real? There, you told us. 163 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:22.840 We shook hands with him gravely and went back outdoors. There was dancing 164 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:26.240 now on the canvas in the garden, old men pushing young girls backwards into 165 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:33.720 eternal, graceless circles, superior couples holding each other tortuously, fashionably and keeping 166 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:37.960 in the corners, and a great number of single girls dancing individually or relieving 167 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:41.519 the orchestra for a moment of the burden of the banjo or the traps. 168 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:48.399 By midnight, the hilarity had increased. A celebrated tenor had sung an Italian 169 00:13:48.679 --> 00:13:52.600 and a notorious contralto had sung in jazz, and between the numbers people were 170 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:58.080 doing stunts all over the garden, while happy, vacuous bursts of laughter rose 171 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:03.720 towards the summer sky. A pair of stage twins who turned out to be 172 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:07.200 the Girls in Yellow, did a baby act in costume, and champagne was 173 00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:13.320 served in glasses bigger than finger bowls. The moon had risen higher, and 174 00:14:13.559 --> 00:14:18.120 floating in the sound was a triangle of silver scales trembling a little to the 175 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:22.759 stiff, tinny drops of the banjos on the lawn. I was still with 176 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:26.519 Jordan Baker. We were sitting at a table with a man of about my 177 00:14:26.679 --> 00:14:31.600 age and a rowdy little girl who gave way upon the slightest provocation to uncontrollable 178 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:37.480 laughter. I was enjoying myself now. I had taken two finger bowls of 179 00:14:37.559 --> 00:14:43.120 champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, 180 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:46.720 and profound. At a lull in the entertainment, the man looked at 181 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:52.799 me and smiled. Your face is familiar, he said, politely. Were 182 00:14:52.840 --> 00:14:56.639 you in the first Division during the war. Why, yes, I was 183 00:14:56.679 --> 00:15:01.759 in the twenty eighth Infantry. I was in the sixteenth until June nineteen eighteen. 184 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:05.720 I knew I'd seen you somewhere before. We talked for a moment about 185 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:11.679 some wet, gray little villages in France. Evidently he lived in the vicinity, 186 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:15.519 for he told me that he had just bought a hydroplane and was going 187 00:15:15.559 --> 00:15:18.639 to try it out in the morning. I want to go with me Old 188 00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:22.720 Sport, just near the shore along the sound. What time, man, 189 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:26.840 any time that suits you best. It was on the tip of my tongue 190 00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:31.159 to ask his name, when Jordan looked around and smiled. Having a gay 191 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:37.159 time now, she inquired much better. I turned again to my new acquaintance. 192 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:41.480 This is an unusual party for me. I haven't even seen the host. 193 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:45.320 I live over there. I waved my hand at the invisible hedge in 194 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:48.639 the distance, and this man gats Me sent over his chauffeur with an invitation. 195 00:15:50.600 --> 00:15:52.639 For a moment. He looked at me as if he failed to understand 196 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:00.480 I'm Gatsby. He said suddenly what I exclaimed? Oh, I beg your 197 00:16:00.519 --> 00:16:03.600 pardon. I thought you knew Old Sport. I'm afraid I'm not a very 198 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:10.440 good host. He smiled understandingly, much more than understandingly. It was one 199 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:15.000 of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it that you may 200 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.879 come across four or five times in life. It faced or seemed to face 201 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:25.399 the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an 202 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:30.799 irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted 203 00:16:30.840 --> 00:16:33.639 to be understood, believed in you as you would like to be believed in 204 00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:38.759 yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that at 205 00:16:38.759 --> 00:16:45.000 your best you hope to convey precisely. At that point it vanished, and 206 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:48.279 I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, 207 00:16:48.440 --> 00:16:55.159 whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Sometime before he introduced 208 00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:59.000 himself, I got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care. 209 00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:03.200 Almost at the moment when mister Gatsby identified himself, a butler hurried toward 210 00:17:03.319 --> 00:17:07.759 him with the information that Chicago was calling him on the wire, he excused 211 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:12.359 himself with a small bow and included each of us in turn. If you 212 00:17:12.440 --> 00:17:17.599 want anything, just ask for an old sport, he urged me. Excuse 213 00:17:17.640 --> 00:17:21.480 me, I will rejoin you later. When he was gone, I turned 214 00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:26.960 immediately to Jordan, constrained to assure her of my surprise. I had expected 215 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:30.880 that mister Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent person in his middle years. 216 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:34.279 Who is he, I demanded, Do you know? He's just a man 217 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:38.119 named Gatsby. Where's he from? I mean? And what does he do? 218 00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:44.359 Now you're started on the subject, she answered with a wan smile, 219 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:48.960 Well, he told me once he was an Oxford man. A dim background 220 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:53.000 started to take shape behind me, but at her next remark it faded away. 221 00:17:55.039 --> 00:17:59.079 However, I don't believe it. Why not, I don't know, 222 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:03.039 she insisted, I just don't think he went there. Something in her tone 223 00:18:03.079 --> 00:18:07.119 reminded me of the other girls. I think he killed a man and had 224 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:12.559 the effect of stimulating my curiosity. I would have accepted without question the information 225 00:18:12.599 --> 00:18:18.359 that Gatsby sprang from the swamps of Louisiana or from the Lower East Side of 226 00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:22.359 New York. That was comprehensible. But young men didn't, at least in 227 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:29.200 my provincial inexperience, I believed they didn't drift coolly out of nowhere and buy 228 00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:33.039 a place on Long Island Sound. Anyhow, he gives large parties, said 229 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:38.079 Jordan, changing the subject with an urban distaste for the concrete, and I 230 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:44.640 like large parties. They're so intimate at small parties, there isn't any privacy. 231 00:18:45.640 --> 00:18:48.279 There was the boom of a bass drum, and the voice of the 232 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:55.039 orchestra leader rang out suddenly above the echolala of the garden. Ladies and gentlemen. 233 00:18:55.319 --> 00:18:57.640 He cried, at the request of mister Gatsby, we are going to 234 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:03.160 play for you. Mister Vladimir Tostov's latest work, which attracted so much attention 235 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:07.440 at Carnegie Hall last May. If you read the papers, you know there 236 00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:15.559 was a big sensation. He smiled with jovial condescension and added some sensation, 237 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:22.640 whereupon everybody laughed. The piece is known, he concluded lustily, as Vladimir 238 00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:29.799 Tostov's Jazz History of the World. The nature of mister Tostov's composition eluded me, 239 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:33.079 because just as it began, my eyes fell on Gatsby, standing alone 240 00:19:33.079 --> 00:19:37.880 on the marble steps and looking from one group to another with approving eyes. 241 00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:42.079 His tan skin was drawn attractively tight on his face, and his short hair 242 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:47.599 looked as though it were trimmed every day. I could see nothing sinister about 243 00:19:47.640 --> 00:19:51.079 him. I wondered if the fact that he was not drinking helped to set 244 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:53.519 him off from his guests, for it seemed to me that he grew more 245 00:19:53.599 --> 00:20:00.200 correct as the fraternal hilarity increased. When the jazz history of the World Old 246 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:04.559 was over, girls were putting their hands on men's shoulders in a puppyish convivial 247 00:20:04.680 --> 00:20:11.440 way. Girls were swooning backwards playfully into men's arms, even into groups, 248 00:20:11.720 --> 00:20:17.039 knowing that someone would arrest their falls. But no one swooned backwards on Gatsby, 249 00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:22.559 and no French bob touched Gatsby's shoulder, and no singing quartets were formed 250 00:20:22.599 --> 00:20:26.759 with Gatsby's head for the link. I beg your pardon. Gatsby's butler was 251 00:20:26.759 --> 00:20:32.920 suddenly standing beside us, Miss Baker. He inquired, I beg your pardon, 252 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:37.640 but mister Gatsby would like to speak to you alone with me, She 253 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:42.119 exclaimed in surprise, Yes, madame. She got up slowly and raised her 254 00:20:42.119 --> 00:20:47.519 eyebrows at me in astonishment, and followed the butler toward the house. I 255 00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:52.160 noticed that she wore her evening dress, all her dresses like sports clothes. 256 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:56.279 There was a jauntiness about her movements, as if she had first learned to 257 00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:00.079 walk upon golf courses on clean, crisp mornings. I was alone, and 258 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:04.880 it was almost two. For some time, confused and intriguing sounds had issued 259 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:11.960 from a long, many windowed room which overhung the terrace, eluding Jordan's undergraduate, 260 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:15.960 who was now engaged in an obstetrical conversation with two chorus girls, and 261 00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:22.000 who implored me to join him. I went inside. The large room was 262 00:21:22.039 --> 00:21:25.279 full of people. One of the girls in yellow was playing the piano, 263 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:29.400 and beside her stood a tall red haired young lady from a famous chorus, 264 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:33.079 engaged in song. She had drunk a quantity of champagne, and during the 265 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:40.440 course of her song she had decided ineptly that everything was very, very sad. 266 00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:45.720 She was not only singing, she was weeping too. Whenever there was 267 00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:48.440 a pause in the song, she filled it with gasping, broken sobs, 268 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:53.920 and then took up the lyric again in a quavering soprano. The tears coursed 269 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.720 down her cheeks. Not freely, however, for when they came into contact 270 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:04.039 with her heavily beaded eyelashes, they assumed an inky color and pursued the rest 271 00:22:04.039 --> 00:22:10.440 of their way in slow, black rivulets. A humorous suggestion was made that 272 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:14.839 she, seeing the notes on her face, whereupon she threw up her hands, 273 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:18.079 sank into a chair, and went off into a deep vinuous sleep. 274 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:22.720 She had a fight with a man who says he's the husband, explained a 275 00:22:22.759 --> 00:22:26.720 girl at my elbow. I looked around. Most of the remaining women were 276 00:22:26.759 --> 00:22:30.799 now having fights with men said to be their husbands. Even Jordan's party, 277 00:22:30.839 --> 00:22:36.599 the quartet from East Egg were rent asunder by dissension. One of the men 278 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:41.079 was talking with curious intensity to a young actress and his wife. After attempting 279 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:47.400 to laugh at the situation in a dignified and indifferent way, broke down entirely 280 00:22:47.400 --> 00:22:52.839 and resorted to flank attacks at intervals. She appeared suddenly at his side like 281 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:59.839 an angry diamond, and hissed you promised into his ear. The reluctance to 282 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:03.680 go home was not confined to wayward men. The hall was at present occupied 283 00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:11.200 by two deplorably sober men and their highly indignant wives. The wives were sympathizing 284 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:15.559 with each other and slightly raised voices. Whenever he sees I'm having a good 285 00:23:15.599 --> 00:23:21.920 time, he wants to go home. Never heard of anything so selfish in 286 00:23:21.960 --> 00:23:27.839 my life. We're always the first ones to leave. Sally are well. 287 00:23:29.400 --> 00:23:33.160 We're almost one of the last tonight, said one of the men, sheepishly. 288 00:23:33.799 --> 00:23:37.640 The orchestra left half an hour ago, in spite of the wives agreement 289 00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:42.759 that such malevolence was beyond credibility. The dispute ended in a short struggle, 290 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:48.839 and both wives were lifted kicking into the night. As I waited for my 291 00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:52.319 hat in the hall, the door of the library opened and Jordan, Baker 292 00:23:52.359 --> 00:23:56.519 and Gatsby came out together. He was saying some last word to her, 293 00:23:56.839 --> 00:24:00.920 but the eagerness in his manner tightened abruptly into formality as several people approached him 294 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:06.519 to say goodbye. Jordan's party were calling impatiently to her from the porch, 295 00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:11.440 but she lingered for a moment to shake hands. I've just learned the most 296 00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:15.119 amazing thing, she whispered. How long were we in there? Why? 297 00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:22.920 About an hour? It was simply amazing, she repeated abstractedly. But I 298 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:26.680 swore I wouldn't tell it, And here I am tantalizing you, she yawned, 299 00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:32.000 gracefully, in my face. Please come and see me phone book under 300 00:24:32.039 --> 00:24:37.480 the name of missus Sigourney Howard, my aunt. She was hurrying off as 301 00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:41.039 she talked her brown hand waved a jaunty salute as she melted into her party 302 00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:45.599 at the door. Rather ashamed that on my first appearance I had stayed so 303 00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:51.079 late, I enjoyed the last of Gasby's guests, who were clustered around him. 304 00:24:51.519 --> 00:24:53.720 I wanted to explain that I had hunted for him early in the evening, 305 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:59.319 and to apologize for not having known him in the garden. Don't mention 306 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:03.519 it, joined me eagerly. Don't give it another thought, old Sport. 307 00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:08.680 The familiar expression held no more familiarity than the hand which reassuringly brushed my shoulder. 308 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:12.839 And don't forget. We're going up in the hydroplane tomorrow morning at nine 309 00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:18.440 o'clock. Then the butler behind his shoulder, Philadelphia. Once you own the 310 00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:22.119 phone, suh, all right, in a minute, tell them I'll be 311 00:25:22.200 --> 00:25:29.200 right there. Good Night, good night, good night, he smiled, 312 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:33.599 And suddenly there seemed to be a pleasant significance in having been among the last 313 00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:37.720 to go, as if he had desired it all the time. Good Night, 314 00:25:37.799 --> 00:25:41.000 old Sport, good night. But as I walked down the steps, 315 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:45.039 I saw that the evening was not quite over fifty feet from the door, 316 00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:51.559 A dozen headlights illuminated a bizarre and tumultuous scene in the ditch beside the road. 317 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:56.400 Right side up but violently shorn of one wheel, rested a new coop 318 00:25:56.519 --> 00:26:00.759 which had left Gatsby's drive not two minutes before. The sharp jut of the 319 00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:06.440 wall accounted for the detachment of the wheel, which was now getting considerable attention 320 00:26:06.559 --> 00:26:11.880 from half a dozen curious chauffeurs. However, as they left their cars blocking 321 00:26:11.920 --> 00:26:15.559 the road, a harsh, discordant din from those in the rear had been 322 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:19.480 audible for some time and added to the already violent confusion of the scene. 323 00:26:21.480 --> 00:26:25.400 A man in a long duster had dismounted from the wreck and now stood in 324 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:27.759 the middle of the road, looking from the car to the tire, and 325 00:26:27.880 --> 00:26:33.039 from the tire to the observers in a pleasant puzzled way. See, he 326 00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:40.839 explained it when in the ditch. The fact was infinitely astonishing to him, 327 00:26:40.839 --> 00:26:45.240 and I recognized first the unusual quality of wonder, and then the man. 328 00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:49.119 It was, the late patron of Gatsby's library. How did it happen? 329 00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:56.000 He shrugged his shoulders. I know nothing whatever about mechanics, he said, 330 00:26:56.039 --> 00:27:00.920 decisively, But how did it happen? Did you run into the wall. 331 00:27:00.880 --> 00:27:06.640 Don't ask me, said Allies, washing his hands of the whole matter. 332 00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:12.079 I know very little about driving, next to nothing. It happened, that's 333 00:27:12.079 --> 00:27:17.039 all I know. Well, if you're a poor driver, you ought to 334 00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:22.400 be driving at night. But I wasn't even trying, he explained indignantly. 335 00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:30.079 I wasn't even trying. An odd hush fell upon the bystanders. Do you 336 00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:34.720 want to commit suicide? You're lucky. It was just a wheel, a 337 00:27:34.759 --> 00:27:41.400 bad driver, not even trying. You don't understand, explained the criminal. 338 00:27:42.279 --> 00:27:48.680 I wasn't driving. There's another man in the car. The shock that followed 339 00:27:48.680 --> 00:27:55.839 this declaration found voice in a sustained ah. As the door of the coop 340 00:27:55.880 --> 00:28:00.640 swung slowly open, the crowd it was now a crowd, stepped back involuntarily, 341 00:28:00.680 --> 00:28:04.240 and when the door had opened wide, there was a ghostly pause. 342 00:28:06.039 --> 00:28:11.680 Then, very gradually, part by part, a pale, dangling individual stepped 343 00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:15.960 out of the wreck, pawed tentatively at the ground with a large, uncertain 344 00:28:15.119 --> 00:28:21.480 dancing shoe. Blinded by the glare of the headlights and confused by the incessant 345 00:28:21.480 --> 00:28:26.359 groaning of the horns, the apparition stood swaying for a moment before he perceived 346 00:28:26.359 --> 00:28:30.640 the man in the duster was mother. He inquired, calmly, did we 347 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:37.039 right out of a guess? Look? Half a dozen fingers pointed at the 348 00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:41.400 amputated wheel. He stared at it for a moment, and then looked upward, 349 00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:45.839 as though he suspected that it had dropped from the sky. It came 350 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:51.640 off, someone explained, He nodded at first, I didn't know this. 351 00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:57.279 We'd stopped a pause, then taking a long breath and straightening his shoulders. 352 00:28:57.480 --> 00:29:04.480 Who remarked and had determined voice, What IFFF tell me where there's a gas 353 00:29:04.599 --> 00:29:08.759 lead? Stay? Should at least a dozen men, some of them a 354 00:29:08.759 --> 00:29:12.880 little better off than he was, explained to him that wheel and car were 355 00:29:12.920 --> 00:29:18.839 no longer joined by any physical bond. Back out, he suggested. After 356 00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:26.559 a moment, put her in reverse, but the wheels off. He hesitated, 357 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:33.000 though harbored. Try egg, he said. The caterwalling horns had reached 358 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:37.839 a crescendo, and I turned away and cut across the lawn toward home. 359 00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:42.440 I glanced back once a wafer of a moon was shining over Gatsby's house, 360 00:29:42.480 --> 00:29:47.920 making the night fine as before, and surviving the laughter and the sound of 361 00:29:47.960 --> 00:29:52.079 his still glowing garden. A sudden emptiness seemed to flow now from the windows 362 00:29:52.119 --> 00:29:56.960 and the great doors, endowing with complete isolation the figure of the host, 363 00:29:57.240 --> 00:30:02.440 who stood on the porch, his hand up in the formal gesture of farewell. 364 00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:07.000 Reading over what I have written so far, I see I have given 365 00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:10.640 the impression that the events of three nights, several weeks apart, were all 366 00:30:10.680 --> 00:30:15.000 that absorbed me. On the contrary, there were merely casual events in a 367 00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:18.599 crowded summer, and until much later, they absorbed me infinitely less than my 368 00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:23.640 personal affairs. Most of the time I worked in the early morning, the 369 00:30:23.720 --> 00:30:27.759 sun threw my shadow westward as I hurried down the white chasms of Lower New 370 00:30:27.880 --> 00:30:33.640 York to the Probity Trust. I knew the other clerks and young bond salesmen 371 00:30:33.640 --> 00:30:37.720 by their first names, and lunched with them in dark, crowded restaurants on 372 00:30:37.799 --> 00:30:42.119 little pig sausages and mashed potatoes and coffee. I even had a short affair 373 00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:47.119 with a girl who lived in Jersey City and worked in the accounting department, 374 00:30:47.640 --> 00:30:51.839 But her brother began throwing mean looks in my direction, so when she went 375 00:30:51.880 --> 00:30:56.440 on her vacation, in July, I let it blow quietly away. I 376 00:30:56.519 --> 00:30:59.720 took dinner, usually at the Yale Club. For some reason, it was 377 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:03.839 the gloomiest event of my day, and then I went upstairs to the library 378 00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:08.519 and studied investments and securities for a conscientious hour. There were generally a few 379 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:12.400 rioters around, but they never came into the library, so it was a 380 00:31:12.440 --> 00:31:17.440 good place to work. After that, if the night was mellow, I 381 00:31:17.480 --> 00:31:22.039 strolled down Madison Avenue, past the old murray Hill Hotel, and over thirty 382 00:31:22.039 --> 00:31:26.839 third Street to the Pennsylvania Station. I began to like New York, the 383 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:30.200 racy, adventurous feel of it at night, and the satisfaction that the constant 384 00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:36.160 flicker of men and women in machines gives to the restless eye. I like 385 00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:40.279 to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine 386 00:31:40.319 --> 00:31:42.920 that in a few minutes I was going to enter into their lives and no 387 00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:48.880 one would ever know or disapprove. Sometimes, in my mind, I followed 388 00:31:48.920 --> 00:31:52.640 them to their apartments on the corners of hidden streets, and they turned and 389 00:31:52.720 --> 00:31:56.839 smiled back at me before they faded through a door into warm darkness. At 390 00:31:56.839 --> 00:32:02.480 the enchanted Metropolitan twilight. I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it 391 00:32:02.519 --> 00:32:07.039 in others, poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows, waiting until 392 00:32:07.079 --> 00:32:12.400 it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner. Young clerks in the dusk, 393 00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:16.960 wasting the most poignant moments of night in life. Again, at eight o'clock, 394 00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:21.920 when the dark lanes of the forties were lying five deep with throbbing taxi 395 00:32:21.960 --> 00:32:25.240 cabs bound for the theater district, I felt a sinking in my heart. 396 00:32:27.079 --> 00:32:30.720 Forms leaned together in the taxis as they waited, and voices sang, and 397 00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:37.599 there was laughter from unheard jokes, and lighted cigarettes made unintelligible circles inside, 398 00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:43.519 imagining that I too was hurrying towards gayety and sharing their intimate excitement. I 399 00:32:43.640 --> 00:32:47.519 wished them well. For a while I lost sight of Jordan Baker, and 400 00:32:47.559 --> 00:32:52.720 then in midsummer I found her again. At first I was flattered to go 401 00:32:52.799 --> 00:32:55.960 places with her because she was a golf champion and everyone knew her name. 402 00:32:57.960 --> 00:33:01.960 Then it was something more. I wasn't actually in love, but I felt 403 00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:07.480 a sort of tender curiosity. The bored, haughty face that she turned to 404 00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:14.319 the world concealed something most affectations concealed something eventually, even though they don't in 405 00:33:14.359 --> 00:33:19.240 the beginning, And one day I found what it was. When we were 406 00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:22.359 on a house party together up in Warwick, she left a borrowed car out 407 00:33:22.359 --> 00:33:27.440 in the rain with the top down and then lied about it. And suddenly 408 00:33:27.480 --> 00:33:30.240 I remembered the story about her that had eluded me. That night at Daisy's, 409 00:33:30.839 --> 00:33:35.400 at her first big golf tournament, there was a row that nearly reached 410 00:33:35.440 --> 00:33:39.000 the newspapers, a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie 411 00:33:39.119 --> 00:33:44.720 in the semi final round. The thing approached the proportions of a scandal, 412 00:33:45.279 --> 00:33:50.400 then died away. A caddy retracted his statement, and the only other witness 413 00:33:50.440 --> 00:33:54.359 admitted that he might have been mistaken. The incident and the name had remained 414 00:33:54.400 --> 00:34:00.319 together in my mind. Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and 415 00:34:00.400 --> 00:34:05.359 now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any 416 00:34:05.400 --> 00:34:12.599 divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She 417 00:34:12.679 --> 00:34:16.159 wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage, and given this unwillingness, I 418 00:34:16.199 --> 00:34:21.760 supposed she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young. In order 419 00:34:21.800 --> 00:34:25.559 to keep that cool, insolent smile, turned to the world and yet satisfied 420 00:34:25.599 --> 00:34:30.480 the demands of her hard, jaunty body. It made no difference to me. 421 00:34:31.079 --> 00:34:36.000 Dishonesty and a woman is a thing you never blame deeply. I was 422 00:34:36.119 --> 00:34:39.880 casually sorry, and then I forgot. It was on that same house party 423 00:34:39.920 --> 00:34:45.760 that we had a curious conversation about driving a car. It started out because 424 00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:49.639 she passed so close to some workman that our fender flicked a button on the 425 00:34:49.679 --> 00:34:53.880 man's coat. You're a rotten driver, I protested. Either you want to 426 00:34:53.880 --> 00:34:59.000 be more careful, or you wanted to drive at all. I am careful. 427 00:34:59.280 --> 00:35:02.360 No, you're or not? Well, other people are, she said 428 00:35:02.440 --> 00:35:07.000 lightly. Well, what's that got to do with it? They'll keep out 429 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:09.280 of my way, She insisted, it takes two to make an accident. 430 00:35:10.079 --> 00:35:15.280 Suppose you meant somebody just as careless as yourself. I hope I never will, 431 00:35:15.360 --> 00:35:20.320 she answered, I hate careless people. That's why I like you. 432 00:35:21.440 --> 00:35:25.320 Her gray, sunstrained eyes stared straight ahead. But she had deliberately shifted our 433 00:35:25.360 --> 00:35:30.440 relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her, But I am 434 00:35:30.480 --> 00:35:36.000 slow thinking and full of interior rules that act as breaks on my desires, 435 00:35:36.400 --> 00:35:39.280 and I knew that first I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle. 436 00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:44.800 Back home, I've been writing letters once a week and signing them Love 437 00:35:44.960 --> 00:35:49.000 Nick, and all I could think of was how when that certain girl played 438 00:35:49.039 --> 00:35:53.400 tennis, a faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip. Nevertheless, 439 00:35:53.639 --> 00:35:58.920 there was a vague understanding that had to be tactfully broken off before I was 440 00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:04.079 free. Every One suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, 441 00:36:04.440 --> 00:36:07.840 and this is mine. I am one of the few honest people that I 442 00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:12.800 have ever known. End of chapter three.