‘My God, I believe the man’s coming,’ said Tom. ‘Doesn’t he know she doesn’t want him?’
‘She says she does want him.’
‘She has a big dinner party and he won’t know a soul there.’ He frowned. ‘I wonder where in the devil he met Daisy. By God, I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy fish.’
Suddenly Mr. Sloane and the lady walked down the steps and mounted their horses.
‘Come on,’ said Mr. Sloane to Tom, ‘we’re late. We’ve got to go.’ And then to me: ‘Tell him we couldn’t wait, will you?’
Tom and I shook hands, the rest of us exchanged a cool nod and they trotted quickly down the drive, disappearing under the August foliage just as Gatsby with hat and light overcoat in hand came out the front door.
Tom was evidently perturbed at Daisy’s running around alone, for on the following Saturday night he came with her to Gatsby’s party. Perhaps his presence gave the evening its peculiar quality of oppressiveness—it stands out in my memory from Gatsby’s other parties that summer. There were the same people, or at least the same sort of people, the same profusion of champagne, the same many-colored, many-keyed commotion, but I felt an unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harshness that hadn’t been there before.
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Or perhaps I had merely grown used to it, grown to accept West Egg as a world complete in itself, with its own standards and its own great figures, second to nothing because it had no consciousness of being so, and now I was looking at it again, through Daisy’s eyes. It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have ex-pended your own powers of adjustment.
They arrived at twilight and as we strolled out among the sparkling hundreds Daisy’s voice was playing murmurous tricks in her throat.
‘These things excite me SO,’ she whispered. ‘If you want to kiss me any time during the evening, Nick, just let me know and I’ll be glad to arrange it for you. Just mention my name. Or present a green card. I’m giving out green——‘
‘Look around,’ suggested Gatsby.
‘I’m looking around. I’m having a marvelous——‘
‘You must see the faces of many people you’ve heard about.’
Tom’s arrogant eyes roamed the crowd.
‘We don’t go around very much,’ he said. ‘In fact I was just thinking I don’t know a soul here.’
‘Perhaps you know that lady.’ Gatsby indicated a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat in state under a white plum tree. Tom and Daisy stared, with that peculiarly unreal feeling that accompanies the recognition of a hitherto ghostly celebrity of the movies.
‘She’s lovely,’ said Daisy.
‘The man bending over her is her director.’
He took them ceremoniously from group to group: 11
The Great Gatsby
‘Mrs. Buchanan … and Mr. Buchanan——’ After an instant’s hesitation he added: ‘the polo player.’
‘Oh no,’ objected Tom quickly, ‘Not me.’
But evidently the sound of it pleased Gatsby for Tom remained ‘the polo player’ for the rest of the evening.
‘I’ve never met so many celebrities!’ Daisy exclaimed. ‘I liked that man—what was his name?—with the sort of blue nose.’
Gatsby identified him, adding that he was a small producer.
‘Well, I liked him anyhow.’
‘I’d a little rather not be the polo player,’ said Tom pleasantly, ‘I’d rather look at all these famous people in—in oblivion.’
Daisy and Gatsby danced. I remember being surprised by his graceful, conservative fox-trot—I had never seen him dance before. Then they sauntered over to my house and sat on the steps for half an hour while at her request I remained watchfully in the garden: ‘In case there’s a fire or a flood,’
she explained, ‘or any act of God.’
Tom appeared from his oblivion as we were sitting down to supper together. ‘Do you mind if I eat with some people over here?’ he said. ‘A fellow’s getting off some funny stuff.’
‘Go ahead,’ answered Daisy genially, ‘And if you want to take down any addresses here’s my little gold pencil….’
She looked around after a moment and told me the girl was
‘common but pretty,’ and I knew that except for the half hour she’d been alone with Gatsby she wasn’t having a good time.
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11
We were at a particularly tipsy table. That was my fault—
Gatsby had been called to the phone and I’d enjoyed these same people only two weeks before. But what had amused me then turned septic on the air now.
‘How do you feel, Miss Baedeker?’
