WEBVTT

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Chapter four of the Great Gatsby by
F. Scott Fitzgerald. On Sunday morning,

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while church bells rang in the villages
along shore, the World and its

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Mistress returned to Gatsby's house and twinkled
hilariously on his lawn. He's a bootlegger,

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said the young ladies, moving somewhere
between his cocktails and his flowers.

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One time he killed a man who
had found out that he was nephew to

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von Hindenburgh and second cousin to the
devil. Reach me a rose, honey,

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and pour me a last drop into
that there crystal glass. Once I

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wrote down on the empty spaces of
a timetable the names of those who came

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to Gatsby's house that summer. It
is an old timetable, now disintegrating at

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its folds, and headed this schedule
in effect July fifth, nineteen twenty two.

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But I can still read the gray
names, and they will give you

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a better impression than my generalities,
of those who accepted Gatsby's hospitality and paid

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him the subtle tribute of knowing nothing
whatever about him. From East Egg then

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came the Chester Beckers, and the
Leeches, and a man named Bunsen,

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whom I knew at Yale, and
a doctor Webster Sivett, who was drowned

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last summer up in Maine, and
the Hornbeams, and the Willie Voltaires,

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and whole clan named Blackbuck, who
always gathered in a corner and flipped up

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their noses like goats at whoever came
near. And the Ismays and the Christies,

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or rather Hubert Auerbach and mister Christie's
wife, and Edgar Beaver, whose

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hair they say turned cotton white one
winter afternoon for no good reason at all.

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Clarence endive was from East Egg as
I remember. He came only once

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in white knickerbockers, and had a
fight with a bum named Eddie in the

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garden. From farther out on the
island came the Cheatles and the O.

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RP. Schraders, and the stonewalled
Jackson Abrams of Georgia, and the fish

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Guards, and the Ripley Snells.
Snell was there three days before he went

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to the penitentiary, so drunk out
on the gravel drive that missus Ulysses sweats

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automobile ran over his right hand.
The Dancys came too, and S.

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B. Whitebait, who was well
over sixty, and Maurice a Flink,

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and the Hammerheads and Beluga the Tobacco
and Porter and Bluga's girls from West Egg

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came the Poles and the Mulradis,
and the Cecil Roebuck and Cecil Shone and

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Gulik the States Senator and Newton Orchid
who controlled films par excellence, and Eckhouston,

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Clyde Cohen and Don S. Schwartz
the Son and Arthur McCarty, all

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connected with the movies in one way
or another, and the cat Lips and

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the Bembergs, and g Earl Muldoon, brother of that Muldoon who afterwards strangled

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his wife. Da Fontano. The
Promoter came there and Ed Legros and James

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b rot Gut Ferret and the Dejongs
and Ernest Lilly. They came to gamble,

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and when Ferrett wandered into the garden
and meant he was cleaned out and

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associated Traction would have to fluctuate profitably
next day. A man named Clipspringer was

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there so often that he became known
as the Border. I doubt if he

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had any other home. Of theatrical
people, there were gus Ways and Horace

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O'Donovan and Lester Meyer and George Duckweed
and Francis Bull. Also from New York

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were the Chromes and the Backisons,
and the Dennickers and Russell Betty and the

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Corrigans and the Kellers and the Dwars
and the Scullies and s. W.

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Belcher and the Smirkys, and the
young Quinn's divorced now and Henry L.

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Palmetto, who killed himself by jumping
in front of a subway train in Times

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Square. Benny mcclenahan arrived always with
four girls. They were never quite the

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same ones in physical person, but
they were so identical one with another that

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it inevitably seemed that they had been
there before. I've forgotten their names Jacqueline,

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I think, or else Consuela or
Gloria, or Judy or June.

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And their last names were either the
melodious names of flowers and months, or

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the sterner ones of the great American
capitalists, whose cousins, if pressed,

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they would confess themselves to be.
In addition to all these, I can

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remember that Faustina O'Brien came there at
least once, and the Bedecker girls,

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and young Brewer, who had his
nose shot off in the war, and

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mister Allbrooksburger, and Miss Hag his
fiancee, and Ardita fitz Peters, and

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mister p Jewet, once head of
the American Legion, with a man reputed

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to be her chauffeur, and a
prince of something who we called duke,

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and whose name, if I ever
knew it, I have gotten. All

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these people came to Gatsby's house in
the summer. At nine o'clock one morning

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late in July, Gatsby's gorgeous car
lurched up the rocky drive to my door

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and gave out a burst of melody
from its three noted horn. It was

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the first time he had called on
me, though I had gone to two

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of his parties mounted in his hydroplane, and at his urgent invitation, made

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frequent use of his beach. Good
morning, old Sport, you were having

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lunch with me today, and I
thought we'd ride up together. He was

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balancing himself on the dashboard of his
car with that resourcefulness of movement that is

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so peculiarly American. That comes,
I suppose, with the absence of lifting

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work in youth, and even more
with the formless grace of our nervous,

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sporadic games. This quality was continually
breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape

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of restlessness. He was never quite
still. There was always a tapping foot

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somewhere, or the impatient opening closing
of a hand. He saw me looking

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with admiration at his car. It's
pretty, isn't it? Old sport?

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He jumped off and gave me a
better view. Have you ever seen it?

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Before I'd seen it, everybody had
seen it. It was a rich

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cream color, bright with nickel swollen
here and there in its monstrous length,

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with triumphant hot boxes and supper boxes
and tool boxes, and terraced with a

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labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen
sons sitting down behind many layers of glass,

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and a sort of green leather conservatory. We started to town. I

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talked with him perhaps half a dozen
times in the past month, and found,

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to my disappointment, that he had
little to say. So my first

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impression that he was a person of
some undefined consequence I gradually faded, and

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he became simply the proprietor of an
elaborate roadhouse next door. And then came

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that disconcerting ride we hadn't reached West
Egg Village before Gatsby began leaving his elegant

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sentences unfinished and slapping himself indecisively on
the knee of his caramel colored suit.

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Look here, old Sport, he
broke out, surprisingly, what's your opinion

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of me? Anyhow? A little
overwhelmed, I began the generalized evasions which

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that question deserves. Well, I'm
going to tell you something about my life,

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he interrupted. I don't want you
to get a wrong idea of me

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from all these stories you hear.
So he was aware of the bizarre accusations

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that flavored conversation in his halls.
I'll tell you God's truth. His right

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hand suddenly ordered divine retribution to stand
by. I am the son of some

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wealthy people in the Middle West,
all dead now. I was brought up

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in America, but educated Oxford because
all my ancestors have been educated there for

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many years. It is a family
tradition. And he looked at me sideways,

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and I knew why Jordan Baker had
believed he was lying. He hurried

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the phrase educated at Oxford, or
swallowed it or choked on it, as

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though it had bothered him before,
and with this doubt. His whole statement

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fell to pieces, and I wondered
if there was something a little sinister about

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him. After all? What part
of the Middle West? I inquired casually

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San Francisco. I see my family
all died, and I came into a

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good deal of money. His voice
was solemn, as as if the memory

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of the sudden extinction of a clan
still haunted him. For a moment I

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suspected that he was pulling my leg, but a glance at him convinced me

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otherwise. After that, I lived
like a young Rajah and all the capitals

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of Europe, Paris, Venice,
Rome, collecting jewels chiefly rubies, hunting

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big game, painting a little things
for myself only, and trying to forget

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something very sad that had happened to
me long ago. With an effort,

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I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter. The very phrases were worn so threadbare

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that they evoked no image except that
of a turbaned character leaking sawdust at every

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poor as he pursued a tiger through
the Wada Bologna. Then came the war

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Old Sport. It was a great
relief, and I tried very hard to

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die but I seemed to bear the
enchanted life. I accepted a commission as

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first lieutenant. When it began in
the Argonne Forest, I took the remains

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of my machine gun battalion so far
forward that there was a half mile gap

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on either side of us where the
infantry couldn't advance. We stayed two days

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and two nights, a hundred and
thirty men with sixteen Lewis guns, and

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when the infantry came up at last, I found the insignia of three German

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divisions among the piles of dead.
I was promoted to be a major,

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and every Allied government gave me a
decoration, even Montenegro, Little Montenegro,

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down on the Adriatic Sea, Little
Montenegro. He lifted up the words and

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nodded at them with his smile.
The smile comprehended Montenegro's troubled history and sympathized

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with the brave struggles of the Montenegron
people. It appreciated fully the chain of

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national circumstances which had elicited this tribute
from Montenegro's warm little heart. My incredulity

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was submerged in fascination. Now it
was like skimming hastily through a dozen magazines.

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He reached in his pocket and a
piece of metal, slung and ribbon

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fell into my palm. That's the
one from Montenegro. To my astonishment,

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the thing had an authentic look.
Ordery de Danilo ran the circular legend Montenegro.

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Nicholas Rex turn it Major J.
Gadsby, I read for valor extraordinary.

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Here's another thing. I always carry
a souvenir of Oxford days. It

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was taken at Trinity Quad. The
man on my left is now the Earl

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of Doncaster. It was a photograph
of half a dozen young men in blazers,

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loafing in an archway, through which
were visible a host of spires.

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There was Gadsby, looking a little
not much younger, with a cricket bat

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in his hand. Then it was
all true. I saw the skins of

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tigers flaming in his palace on the
Grand Canal. I saw him opening a

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chest of rubies to ease with their
crimson lighted depths, the gnawings of his

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broken heart. I'm going to make
a big request of you today, he

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said, pocketing his souvenirs with satisfaction. So I thought you ought to know

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something about me. I didn't want
you to think I was just some nobody.

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You see, I usually find myself
among strangers because I drift here and

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there trying to forget the sad things
that happened to me. He hesitated,

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You'll hear about it this afternoon at
lunch. No, this afternoon, I

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happened to find out that you're taking
miss Baker to tea. Do you mean

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that you're in love with miss Baker? No, old Sport, I'm not.

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But Miss Baker had kindly consented to
speak to you about this matter.

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I hadn't the faintest idea what this
matter was, but I was more annoyed

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than interested. I hadn't asked Jordan
to tea in order to discuss mister j.

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Gadsby. I was sure the request
would be something utterly fantastic, and

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for a moment I was sorry I
had ever set foot upon his overpopulated lawn.

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He wouldn't say another word. His
correctness grew on him. As we

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neared the city. We passed Port
Roosevelt, where there was a glimpse of

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red belted ocean going ships, and
sped along a cobb old slum lined with

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the dark, undeserted saloons of the
faded Guilt nineteen hundreds. Then the valley

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of ashes opened out on both sides
of us, and I had a glimpse

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of Missus Wilson straining at the garage
pump with panting vitality. As we went

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by, with fenders spreadlike wings,
we scattered light through half astoria, only

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half for As we twisted among the
pillars of the elevated I heard the familiar

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jug jug spat of a motorcycle,
and a frantic policeman rode alongside all right,

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old Sport, called Gatsby. We
slowed down, taking a white card

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from his wallet, we waved it
before the man's eyes. Right, you

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are agreed, the policeman tipping his
cap. Know you next time, mister

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Gatsby. Excuse me, what was
that? I inquired the picture of Oxford.

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I was able to do the Commissioner
of favor once, and he sends

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me a Christmas card every year.
Over the bridge, with the sunlight through

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the girders making a constant flicker upon
the moving cars, with the city rising

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up across the river in white heaps
and sugar lumps, all built with a

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wish out of non olfactory money.
The city scene from the Queensboro Bridge is

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always the city scene. For the
first time in its first wild promise of

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all the mystery and the beauty in
the world. A dead man passed us

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in a hearse heaped with blooms,
followed by two carriages with drawn blinds,

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and by more cheerful carriages for friends. The friends looked out at us with

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the tragic eyes and short upper lips
of southeastern Europe, and I was glad

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that the sight of Gatsby's splendid car
was included in their somber holiday. As

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we crossed Blackwell's Island, a limousine
passed us, driven by a white chauffeur,

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in which sat three modish negroes,
two bucks and a girl. I

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laughed aloud as the yokes of their
eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.

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Anything can happen now that we've slid
over this bridge, I thought, anything

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at all, even Gatsby, could
happen without any particular wonder. Roaring noon,

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in a well fanned forty second street
cellar, I met Gatsby for lunch.

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Blinking away. The brightness of the
street outside my eyes picked him out

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obscurely in the ante room, talking
to another man, mister Carraway, this

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is my friend, mister Wolfsheim,
a small, flat nosed jew, raised

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his large head and regarded me with
two fine growths of hair which luxuriated in

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either nostril. After a moment,
I discovered his tiny eyes in the half

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darkness, so I took one look
at him, said mister Wolfsheim, shaking

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my hand earnestly. And what do
you think I did? What? I

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inquired politely. But evidently he was
not addressing me, for he dropped my

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hand and covered Gatsby with his expressive
nose. I handed the money to Katspa,

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and I said, all right,
Katspo, don't pay him a penny

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until he shuts his mouth. He
shut it then, and dare Catsby took

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an arm of each of us and
moved forward into the restaurant, whereupon mister

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Wolfsheim swallowed a new sentence he was
starting, and lapsed into a somnambulatory abstraction.

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Highballs, asked the head waiter.
This is a nice restaurant here,

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said mister Wolfsheim, looking at the
Presbyterian nymphs on the ceiling. But I

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like across the street. Better,
Yes, highballs, agreed mister Gatsby.

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And then to mister Wolfsheim, it's
too hot over there. Hot and small,

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00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:45.279
yes, said mister Wolfsheim. But
full of memories. What place is

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that, I asked, the old
Metropole. The old Metropole brooded, mister

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00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:56.200
Wolfsheim, gloomily, filled with faces
dead and gone, filled with friends count

200
00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:00.440
now forever. I can't forget,
so long as I lives. The night

201
00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:06.160
they shot Rosy Rosenthall there it was
six of us at the table, and

202
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Rosie had eaten drunk a lot all
evening. When it was almost morning,

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the waiter came up to him with
a funny look and says, somebody wants

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00:17:15.799 --> 00:17:21.279
to speak to him outside. All
right, says Rosie, and begins to

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00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:26.559
get up, and I pulled him
down in his chair. Let the bastards

206
00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:30.039
come here if they weren't you,
Rosy, But don't you so help me

207
00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:36.559
move outside this room. It was
four o'clock in the morning then, and

208
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if we'd have raised the blinds,
we'd have seen daylight. Did he go?

209
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I asked, innocently, Sure he
went. Mister Wolfsheim's nose flashed at

210
00:17:47.079 --> 00:17:51.839
me indignantly. He turned around in
the door and says, don't let that

211
00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:56.240
veiter take away my coffee. And
then he went out on the sidewalk,

212
00:17:56.279 --> 00:18:00.480
and they shot him three times in
his full belly, and drew away.

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Four of them were electrocuted, I
said, remembering five with Becca. His

214
00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:11.079
nozzles turned to me in an interested
way. I understand you're looking for a

215
00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:18.039
business connection. The juxtaposition of these
two remarks was startling. Gatsby answered for

216
00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:22.559
me. Oh no, he exclaimed, this isn't the man. No.

217
00:18:23.440 --> 00:18:29.480
Mister Wolfsheim seemed disappointed. This is
just a friend. I told you we'd

218
00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:33.599
talk about that some other time.
I beg your boden, said mister Wolfsheim.

219
00:18:34.119 --> 00:18:40.000
I had the long man. A
succulent hash arrived, and mister Wolfheim,

220
00:18:40.359 --> 00:18:44.799
forgetting the more sentimental atmosphere of the
old Metropole, began to eat with

221
00:18:44.920 --> 00:18:49.279
ferocious delicacy. His eyes meanwhile,
roved very slowly all around the room.

222
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He completed the ark by turning to
inspect the people directly behind. I think

223
00:18:55.720 --> 00:18:59.839
that except for my presence, he
would have taken one short glance beneath our

224
00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:03.359
own table. Look here, old
sport, said Gatsby, leaning toward me.

225
00:19:04.039 --> 00:19:08.200
I'm afraid I made you a little
angry this morning in the car there

226
00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:12.480
was the smile again, but this
time I held out against it. I

227
00:19:12.519 --> 00:19:17.240
don't like mysteries, I answered,
And I don't understand why you won't come

228
00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:19.960
out frankly and tell me what you
want. Why has it all got to

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00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:26.000
come through miss Baker. Oh,
it's nothing underhand, he assured me.

230
00:19:26.440 --> 00:19:30.400
Miss Baker's a great sportswoman, you
know, and she'd never do anything that

231
00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:34.640
wasn't all right. Suddenly he looked
at his watch, jumped up and hurried

232
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from the room, leaving me with
mister Wolfsheim at the table. He has

233
00:19:40.119 --> 00:19:45.440
to telephone, said mister Wolfsheim,
following him with his eyes. Fine fellow,

234
00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:52.279
isn't he handsome to look at and
a perfect gentleman? Yes, he's

235
00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:57.519
an Oxford man. Oh, even
to Oxford College in England. You know

236
00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:03.160
Oxford College. I've heard of it. It's one of the most famous colleges

237
00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:07.400
in the world. Have you known
Gadsby for a long time? I inquired,

238
00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:12.200
several years, he answered, in
a gratified way. I made the

239
00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:17.599
pleasure of his acquaintance after the war. But I knew I had discovered a

240
00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:21.640
man of fine breeding. After I
talked with him an hour, I said

241
00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:25.400
to myself, there is the kind
of man you'd like to take home and

242
00:20:25.559 --> 00:20:30.039
introduce to your mother and sister.
He paused, I see you're looking at

243
00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:34.640
my cuff buttons. I hadn't been
looking at them, but I did now.

244
00:20:36.200 --> 00:20:41.240
They were composed of oddly familiar pieces
of ivory, finest specimens of human

245
00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:48.160
morlas. He informed me. Well, I inspected them. That's a very

246
00:20:48.200 --> 00:20:53.480
interesting idea. Yeah. He flipped
his sleeves up under his coat. Yeah.

247
00:20:53.559 --> 00:20:59.240
Godsby's very careful about the women.
He would never so much as look

248
00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:03.200
at the friends life. When the
subject of this instinctive trust returned to the

249
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:07.440
table and sat down, mister Wolfsheim
drank his coffee with a jerk and got

250
00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:11.839
to his feet. I have enjoyed
my lunch, he said, and I'm

251
00:21:11.880 --> 00:21:15.839
going to run off from you two
young men before I outstay my welcome.

252
00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:22.519
Don't hurry, mere, said Gatsby
without enthusiasm. Mister Wolfsheim raised his hand

253
00:21:22.599 --> 00:21:29.960
in a sort of benediction. You're
very polite, but I belong to another

254
00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:36.000
generation, he announced, solemnly.
You sit here and discuss your sports and

255
00:21:36.119 --> 00:21:41.200
your young ladies. And he supplied
an imaginary noun with another wave of his

256
00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:45.359
hand. As for me, I'm
fifty years old, and I won't impose

257
00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:49.960
myself on you any thonga. As
he shook hands and turned away, his

258
00:21:51.079 --> 00:21:55.680
tragic nose was trembling. I wondered
if I had said anything to offend him.

259
00:21:56.920 --> 00:22:00.720
He becomes very sentimental, sometimes,
explained Gatsby. This is one of

260
00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:06.759
his sentimental days. He's quite a
character around New York, a denizen of

261
00:22:06.839 --> 00:22:12.359
Broadway. Who is he anyhow?
An actor? No? A dentist meyer

262
00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:19.200
wolfsheim No, he's a gambler.
Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly, He's

263
00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:25.599
the man who fixed the World Series
back in nineteen nineteen. Fixed the World

264
00:22:25.720 --> 00:22:30.559
Series, I repeated. The idea
staggered me. I remembered, of course,

265
00:22:30.599 --> 00:22:33.000
that the World Series had been fixed
in nineteen nineteen. But if I

266
00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:36.759
had thought of it at all,
I would have thought of it as a

267
00:22:36.839 --> 00:22:41.559
thing that merely happened, the end
of some inevitable chain. It never occurred

268
00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:45.359
to me that one man could start
to play with the fate of fifty million

269
00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:52.720
people with the single mindedness of a
burglar blowing a safe. How did he

270
00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:56.680
happen to do that? I asked, after a minute, He just saw

271
00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:00.839
the opportunity. Why isn't he in
jail? They can't get him old sport.

272
00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:06.880
He's a smart man. I insisted
on paying the check. As the

273
00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:10.640
waiter brought my change, I caught
the sight of Tom Buchanan across the crowded

274
00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:14.240
room. Come along with me for
a minute, I said, I've got

275
00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:18.039
to say hello to someone. When
he saw us, Tom jumped up and

276
00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:22.319
took half a dozen steps in our
direction. Where have you been, he

277
00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:27.440
demanded eagerly. Daisy's furious because you
haven't called up. This is mister Gatsby,

278
00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:33.480
mister Buchanan. They shook hands briefly, and a strained, unfamiliar look

279
00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:37.920
of embarrassment came over Gatsby's face.
How have you been anyhow, demanded Tom

280
00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:41.759
of me. How do you happen
to come up this far to eat?

281
00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:47.480
I've been having lunch with mister Gatsby. I turned toward mister Gatsby, but

282
00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:52.680
he was no longer there. One
October day in nineteen seventeen, said Jordan

283
00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:56.279
Baker. That afternoon, sitting up
very straight on a straight chair in the

284
00:23:56.319 --> 00:24:00.640
tea garden at the Plaza Hotel.
I was walking along from one place to

285
00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:04.920
another, half on the sidewalks and
half on the lawns. I was happier

286
00:24:04.920 --> 00:24:08.960
on the lawns because I had on
shoes from England with rubber knobs on the

287
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.440
soles that bit into the soft ground. I had on a new plaid skirt

288
00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:17.799
also, that blew a little in
the wind. And whenever this happened,

289
00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:21.519
the red, white and blue banners
in front of all the houses stretched out

290
00:24:21.559 --> 00:24:26.160
stiff and said tat tat, tat
tat in a disapproving way. The largest

291
00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:30.799
of the banners and the largest of
the lawns belonged to Daisy Fay's house.

292
00:24:30.359 --> 00:24:33.880
She was just eighteen, two years
older than me, and by far the

293
00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:38.200
most popular of all the young girls
in Louisville. She dressed in white and

294
00:24:38.359 --> 00:24:42.359
had a little white roadster, and
all day long the telephone rang in her

295
00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:48.720
house and excited young officers from Camp
Taylor demanded the privilege of monopolizing her that

296
00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:53.079
night, anyways, for an hour. When I came beside her house that

297
00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:56.640
morning, her white roadster was beside
the curb, and she was sitting in

298
00:24:56.680 --> 00:25:00.480
it with a lieutenant. I had
never seen before. They were so engrossed

299
00:25:00.519 --> 00:25:03.920
in each other that she didn't see
me until I was five feet away.

300
00:25:04.839 --> 00:25:10.480
Hello, Jordan, she called,
unexpectedly, Please come here. I was

301
00:25:10.519 --> 00:25:12.880
flattered that she wanted to speak to
me, because of all the older girls,

302
00:25:12.920 --> 00:25:17.599
I admired her most. She asked
me if I was going to Red

303
00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:22.480
Cross to make bandages. I was
well, then would I tell them that

304
00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:26.799
she couldn't come that day. The
officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking

305
00:25:26.039 --> 00:25:30.240
in a way that every young girl
wants to be looked at some time,

306
00:25:30.519 --> 00:25:33.920
and because it seemed romantic to me. I have remembered the incident ever since.

307
00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:38.880
His name was Jay Gadsby, and
I didn't lay eyes on him again

308
00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:42.920
for over four years. Even after
I met him on Long Island, I

309
00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:48.440
didn't realize it was the same man. That was nineteen seventeen. By the

310
00:25:48.519 --> 00:25:52.079
next year, I had a few
bows myself and I began to play in

311
00:25:52.119 --> 00:25:56.319
tournaments, so I didn't see Daisy
very often. She went with a slightly

312
00:25:56.359 --> 00:26:02.839
older crowd when she went with anyone
at all. Wild rumors were circulating about

313
00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:06.599
her how her mother had found her
packing her bag one winter night to go

314
00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:11.079
to New York and say goodbye to
a soldier who was going overseas. She

315
00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:15.279
was effectually prevented, but she wasn't
on speaking terms with her family For several

316
00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:19.759
weeks. After that, she didn't
play around with the soldiers anymore, but

317
00:26:19.880 --> 00:26:23.839
only with a few flat footed,
shortsighted young men in town who couldn't get

318
00:26:23.880 --> 00:26:27.640
into the army at all. By
the next autumn she was gay again,

319
00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:33.640
gay as ever. She had a
debut after the armistice, and in February

320
00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:37.400
she was presumably engaged to a man
from New Orleans. In June she married

321
00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:42.759
Tom Buchanan of Chicago, with more
pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before.

322
00:26:44.599 --> 00:26:48.799
He came down with a hundred people
in four private cars and hired a

323
00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:52.079
whole floor of the Molbach Hotel,
and the day before the wedding he gave

324
00:26:52.119 --> 00:26:57.920
her a string of pearls valued at
three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I

325
00:26:59.039 --> 00:27:02.880
was a bridesmaid. I came into
her room half an hour before the bridal

326
00:27:02.920 --> 00:27:06.920
dinner and found her lying on her
bed, as lovely as the June night,

327
00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:11.519
in her flowered dress, and as
drunk as a monkey. She had

328
00:27:11.559 --> 00:27:14.680
a bottle of so turn in one
hand and a letter in the other.

329
00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:21.279
Congratulate me, she muttered, never
had a drink before, but oh,

330
00:27:21.279 --> 00:27:26.160
how I do enjoy it. What's
the matter, Daisy? I was scared.

331
00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:30.279
I can tell you I've never seen
a girl like that before. Here,

332
00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:33.960
dearies. She groped around in a
waste basket she had with her on

333
00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:38.319
the bed and pulled out the string
of pearls. Take them downstairs and give

334
00:27:38.359 --> 00:27:42.519
them back to whoever they belonged to
tell them all, daisies, change her

335
00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:48.240
mine, say, Daisies, change
her mine. She began to cry.

336
00:27:48.759 --> 00:27:53.359
She cried and cried. I rushed
out and found her mother's made and we

337
00:27:53.480 --> 00:27:57.160
locked the door and got her into
a cold bath. She wouldn't let go

338
00:27:57.200 --> 00:28:00.640
of the letter. She took it
into the tub with her and squeezed it

339
00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:04.039
up into a wet ball, and
only let me leave it in the soap

340
00:28:04.079 --> 00:28:08.480
dish when she saw that it was
coming to pieces like snow. But she

341
00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:12.400
didn't say another word. We gave
her spirits of ammonia and put ice on

342
00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:17.319
her forehead and hooked her back into
her dress. And half an hour later,

343
00:28:17.559 --> 00:28:19.839
when we walked out of the room. The pearls were around her neck,

344
00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:23.559
and the incident was over. Next
day, at five o'clock, she

345
00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:29.759
married Tom Buchanan without so much as
a shiver and started off on a three

346
00:28:29.799 --> 00:28:33.240
months trip to the South seas.
I saw them in Santa Barbara when they

347
00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:37.000
came back, and I thought I'd
never seen a girl so mad about her

348
00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:41.279
husband. If he left the room
for a minute, she'd look around uneasily

349
00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:47.880
and say, where's Tom gone?
And where the most abstracted expression until she

350
00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:51.480
saw him coming in the door.
She used to sit on the sand with

351
00:28:51.519 --> 00:28:55.440
his head in her lap by the
hour, rubbing her fingers over his eyes

352
00:28:55.480 --> 00:29:00.599
and looking at him with unfathomable delight. It was touching to see them together.

353
00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:03.799
It made you laugh in a hushed, fascinated way. That was in

354
00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:08.039
August, a week after I left
Santa Barbara. Tom ran into a wagon

355
00:29:08.119 --> 00:29:11.960
on the Ventura Road one night and
ripped a front wheel off his car.

356
00:29:12.680 --> 00:29:17.240
The girl who was with him got
into the papers too, because her arm

357
00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:21.200
was broken. She was one of
the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara hotel.

358
00:29:22.039 --> 00:29:25.920
The next April, Daisy had her
little girl and they went to France for

359
00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:30.359
a year. I saw them one
spring in Cannes and later in Doville,

360
00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:33.960
and then they came back to Chicago
to settle down. Daisy was popular in

361
00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:37.839
Chicago, as you know. They
moved with a fast crowd, all of

362
00:29:37.880 --> 00:29:42.440
them young and rich and wild.
But she came out with an absolutely perfect

363
00:29:42.480 --> 00:29:48.680
reputation. Perhaps because she doesn't drink. It's a great advantage not to drink

364
00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:52.039
among hard drinking people. You can
hold your tongue, and moreover, you

365
00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:56.880
can time any little irregularity of your
own so that everybody else is so blind

366
00:29:57.200 --> 00:30:02.799
that they don't see or care.
Perhaps Daisy never went in for a more

367
00:30:02.920 --> 00:30:07.720
after all, And yet there's something
in that voice of hers. Well.

368
00:30:07.960 --> 00:30:11.279
About six weeks ago she heard the
name Gatsby for the first time in years.

369
00:30:12.039 --> 00:30:15.920
It was when I asked you,
do you remember if you knew Gatsby

370
00:30:15.960 --> 00:30:19.759
in West Egg after you had gone
home. She came into my room and

371
00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:25.759
woke me up and said, what
Gatsby? And when I described him,

372
00:30:25.880 --> 00:30:30.519
I was half asleep. She said, in the strangest voice that it must

373
00:30:30.519 --> 00:30:33.559
be the man she used to know. It wasn't until then that I connected

374
00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:40.519
this Gatsby with the officer in her
white car. When Jordan Baker had finished

375
00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:42.839
telling all this, we had left
the plaza for half an hour and were

376
00:30:42.920 --> 00:30:48.319
driving in a Victoria through Central Park. The sun had gone down behind the

377
00:30:48.359 --> 00:30:52.480
tall apartments of the movie stars in
the West fifties, and the clear voices

378
00:30:52.519 --> 00:30:56.359
of children already gathered like crickets on
the grass rose through the hot twilight.

379
00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:03.279
I'm the Sheik Varrabee. Your love
belongs to me at night when you're asleep

380
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:10.039
into your tental creep. It was
a strange coincidence, I said, But

381
00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:15.359
it wasn't a coincidence at all.
Why not Gatsby bought that house so that

382
00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:19.400
Daisy would be just across the bay. Then it had not been merely the

383
00:31:19.559 --> 00:31:23.960
stars to which he had aspired on
that June night. He came alive to

384
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:30.559
me, delivered suddenly from the womb
of his purposeless splendor. He wants to

385
00:31:30.599 --> 00:31:34.160
know, continued Jordan, if you'll
invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and

386
00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:38.799
then let him come over. The
modesty of the demand shook me. He

387
00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:45.519
had waited five years and bought a
mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths,

388
00:31:45.559 --> 00:31:51.240
so that he could come over some
afternoon to a stranger's garden. Did

389
00:31:51.319 --> 00:31:53.200
I have to know all this before
you could ask such a little thing.

390
00:31:53.880 --> 00:32:00.440
He's afraid he's waited so long he
thought you might be offended. See,

391
00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:05.839
he's a regular tough underneath it all. Something worried me. Why didn't he

392
00:32:05.880 --> 00:32:08.200
ask you to arrange a meeting.
He wants her to see his house,

393
00:32:08.359 --> 00:32:14.599
she explained, And your house is
right next door. Ah. I think

394
00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:17.079
he half expected her to wander into
one of his parties some night went on

395
00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:22.039
Jordan, but she never did.
Then he began asking people casually if they

396
00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:25.359
knew her, and I was one
of the first he found. It was

397
00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:29.759
that night he sent for me at
his dance, and you should have heard

398
00:32:29.799 --> 00:32:32.920
the elaborate way he worked up to
it. Of course, I immediately suggested

399
00:32:32.920 --> 00:32:37.559
a luncheon in New York, and
I thought he'd go mad. I don't

400
00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:40.880
want to do anything out of the
way. He kept saying, I want

401
00:32:40.920 --> 00:32:45.000
to see her right next door.
When I said you were a particular friend

402
00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:50.480
of Tom's, he started to abandon
the whole idea. He doesn't know very

403
00:32:50.559 --> 00:32:53.200
much about Tom, though he says
he's read a Chicago paper for years,

404
00:32:53.279 --> 00:32:58.640
just on the chance of catching a
glimpse of Daisy's name. It was dark

405
00:32:58.680 --> 00:33:00.680
now, and as we dipped her
a little bridge, I put my arm

406
00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:06.319
around Jordan's golden shoulder and drew her
toward me and asked her to dinner.

407
00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:10.240
Suddenly I wasn't thinking of Daisy and
Gatsby anymore, but of this clean,

408
00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:16.519
hard, limited person who dealt in
universal skepticism, and who leaned back jauntily

409
00:33:16.680 --> 00:33:21.880
just within the circle of my arm. A phrase began to beat in my

410
00:33:21.960 --> 00:33:25.240
ears, with a sort of heady
excitement. There are only the pursued,

411
00:33:25.480 --> 00:33:30.160
the pursuing, the busy, and
the tired. And Daisy ought to have

412
00:33:30.319 --> 00:33:35.240
something in her life, murmured Jordan
to me. Does she want to see

413
00:33:35.279 --> 00:33:38.519
Gatsby? She's not to know about
it. Gatsby doesn't want her to know.

414
00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:43.880
You're just supposed to invite her to
tea. We passed a barrier of

415
00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:46.799
dark trees, and then the facade
of fifty ninth Street, A block of

416
00:33:46.839 --> 00:33:52.119
delicate, pale light beamed down into
the park. Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan,

417
00:33:52.519 --> 00:33:58.680
I had no girl whose disembodied face
floated along the dark cornices of blinding

418
00:33:58.759 --> 00:34:02.519
signs. So I drew up the
girl beside me, tightening my arms.

419
00:34:04.079 --> 00:34:07.840
Her wan scornful mouth smiled, and
so I drew her up again, closer

420
00:34:08.519 --> 00:34:13.679
this time to my face. End
of Chapter four