You must have gone to church once. Didn’t you get married in a church? Listen, George, listen to me. Didn’t you get married in a church?’
‘That was a long time ago.’
The effort of answering broke the rhythm of his rocking—
for a moment he was silent. Then the same half knowing, half bewildered look came back into his faded eyes.
‘Look in the drawer there,’ he said, pointing at the desk.
‘Which drawer?’
‘That drawer—that one.’
Michaelis opened the drawer nearest his hand. There was nothing in it but a small expensive dog leash made of leather and braided silver. It was apparently new.
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The Great Gatsby
‘This?’ he inquired, holding it up.
Wilson stared and nodded.
‘I found it yesterday afternoon. She tried to tell me about it but I knew it was something funny.’
‘You mean your wife bought it?’
‘She had it wrapped in tissue paper on her bureau.’
Michaelis didn’t see anything odd in that and he gave Wilson a dozen reasons why his wife might have bought the dog leash. But conceivably Wilson had heard some of these same explanations before, from Myrtle, because he began saying ‘Oh, my God!’ again in a whisper—his comforter left several explanations in the air.
‘Then he killed her,’ said Wilson. His mouth dropped open suddenly.
‘Who did?’
‘I have a way of finding out.’
‘You’re morbid, George,’ said his friend. ‘This has been a strain to you and you don’t know what you’re saying. You’d better try and sit quiet till morning.’
‘He murdered her.’
‘It was an accident, George.’
Wilson shook his head. His eyes narrowed and his mouth widened slightly with the ghost of a superior ‘Hm!’
‘I know,’ he said definitely, ‘I’m one of these trusting fellas and I don’t think any harm to NObody, but when I get to know a thing I know it. It was the man in that car. She ran out to speak to him and he wouldn’t stop.’
Michaelis had seen this too but it hadn’t occurred to him that there was any special significance in it. He believed that Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com
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Mrs. Wilson had been running away from her husband, rather than trying to stop any particular car.
‘How could she of been like that?’
‘She’s a deep one,’ said Wilson, as if that answered the question. ‘Ah-h-h——‘
He began to rock again and Michaelis stood twisting the leash in his hand.
‘Maybe you got some friend that I could telephone for, George?’
This was a forlorn hope—he was almost sure that Wilson had no friend: there was not enough of him for his wife. He was glad a little later when he noticed a change in the room, a blue quickening by the window, and realized that dawn wasn’t far off. About five o’clock it was blue enough outside to snap off the light.
Wilson’s glazed eyes turned out to the ashheaps, where small grey clouds took on fantastic shape and scurried here and there in the faint dawn wind.
‘I spoke to her,’ he muttered, after a long silence. ‘I told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God. I took her to the window—’ With an effort he got up and walked to the rear window and leaned with his face pressed against it, ‘—and I said ‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me but you can’t fool God!’ ‘
Standing behind him Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg which had just emerged pale and enormous from the dissolving night.
‘God sees everything,’ repeated Wilson.
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The Great Gatsby
‘That’s an advertisement,’ Michaelis assured him. Something made him turn away from the window and look back into the room. But Wilson stood there a long time, his face close to the window pane, nodding into the twilight.
By six o’clock Michaelis was worn out and grateful for the sound of a car stopping outside. It was one of the watchers of the night before who had promised to come back so he cooked breakfast for three which he and the other man ate together. Wilson was quieter now and Michaelis went home to sleep; when he awoke four hours later and hurried back to the garage Wilson was gone.
