The Great Gatsby - Holmdel

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‘Hello!’ I interrupted breathlessly. ‘Look here—this isn’tMr. Gatsby. Mr. Gatsby’s dead.’There was a long silence on the other end of the wire,followed by an exclamation … then a quick squawk as theconnection was broken.I think it was on the third day that a telegram signedHenry C. Gatz arrived from a town in Minnesota. It saidonly that the sender was leaving immediately and to postponethe funeral until he came.It was Gatsby’s father, a solemn old man very helplessand dismayed, bundled up in a long cheap ulster againstthe warm September day. His eyes leaked continuously withexcitement and when I took the bag and umbrella from hishands he began to pull so incessantly at his sparse greybeard that I had difficulty in getting off his coat. He wason the point of collapse so I took him into the music roomand made him sit down while I sent for something to eat.But he wouldn’t eat and the glass of milk spilled from histrembling hand.‘I saw it in the Chicago newspaper,’ he said. ‘It was all inthe Chicago newspaper. I started right away.’‘I didn’t know how to reach you.’His eyes, seeing nothing, moved ceaselessly about theroom.‘It was a mad man,’ he said. ‘He must have been mad.’‘Wouldn’t you like some coffee?’ I urged him.‘I don’t want anything. I’m all right now, Mr.——‘‘Carraway.’‘Well, I’m all right now. Where have they got Jimmy?’178The Great Gatsby
I took him into the drawing-room, where his son lay, andleft him there. Some little boys had come up on the stepsand were looking into the hall; when I told them who hadarrived they went reluctantly away.After a little while Mr. Gatz opened the door and cameout, his mouth ajar, his face flushed slightly, his eyes leakingisolated and unpunctual tears. He had reached an agewhere death no longer has the quality of ghastly surprise,and when he looked around him now for the first time andsaw the height and splendor of the hall and the great roomsopening out from it into other rooms his grief began to bemixed with an awed pride. I helped him to a bedroom upstairs;while he took off his coat and vest I told him that allarrangements had been deferred until he came.‘I didn’t know what you’d want, Mr. Gatsby——‘‘Gatz is my name.’‘—Mr. Gatz. I thought you might want to take the bodywest.’He shook his head.‘Jimmy always liked it better down East. He rose up to hisposition in the East. Were you a friend of my boy’s, Mr.—?’‘We were close friends.’‘He had a big future before him, you know. He was only ayoung man but he had a lot of brain power here.’He touched his head impressively and I nodded.‘If he’d of lived he’d of been a great man. A man likeJames J. Hill. He’d of helped build up the country.’‘That’s true,’ I said, uncomfortably.He fumbled at the embroidered coverlet, trying to take itFree eBooks at Planet eBook.com179
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Then wear the gold hat, if that wil
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aways are something of a clan and w
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It was a matter of chance that I sh
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And so it happened that on a warm w
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the whip and snap of the curtains a
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‘What you doing, Nick?’‘I’m
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Before I could answer her eyes fast
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cally. ‘It’s about the butler
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or White Star Line. He’s singing
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attention, my belief, I felt the ba
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‘Did I?’ She looked at me. ‘I
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ished, and I was alone again in the
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emn dumping ground.The valley of as
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ut there was an immediately percept
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The man peered doubtfully into the
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in the saucer of milk all afternoon
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flounced over to the dog, kissed it
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‘Really.’‘Just last year. I w
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variety of life.Myrtle pulled her c
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‘Where?’‘Anywhere.’‘Keep
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lights to make a Christmas tree of
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Gatsby in a majestic hand.Dressed u
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inside of a week I got a package fr
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ooks. As we entered he wheeled exci
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of champagne and the scene had chan
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‘Where is he from, I mean? And wh
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clothes—there was a jauntiness ab
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‘Why,—about an hour.’‘It wa
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An awed hush fell upon the bystande
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had a short affair with a girl who
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sible. She was incurably dishonest.
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Chapter 4On Sunday morning while ch
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he had any other home. Of theatrica
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he had become simply the proprietor
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Little Montenegro! He lifted up the
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Taking a white card from his wallet
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‘The old Metropole.‘The old Met
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‘He went to Oggsford College in E
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hello to someone.’When he saw us
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short-sighted young men in town who
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wild, but she came out with an abso
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’ ‘I don’t want to do anythin
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ing to call up Daisy tomorrow and i
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search for her among soggy white-wa
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‘I don’t think so,’ she said
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‘I’ve got to speak to you about
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hands.‘It’s stopped raining.’
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We went upstairs, through period be
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Daisy put her arm through his abrup
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full of light.In the music room Gat
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Chapter 6About this time an ambitio
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grotesque and fantastic conceits ha
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Gatsby drank so little. Sometimes i
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‘Next door.’‘That so?’Mr. S
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Or perhaps I had merely grown used
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We were at a particularly tipsy tab
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He was silent for a moment. The peb
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He wanted nothing less of Daisy tha
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Chapter 7It was when curiosity abou
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‘Oh, my!’ she gasped.I picked i
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‘You forget there’s a lady pres
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lessed isles.‘There’s sport for
Page 128 and 129: upper window.‘I’ll get some whi
Page 130 and 131: ‘What?’ Confused, he stared at
Page 132 and 133: ‘What do I owe you?’ demanded T
Page 134 and 135: ‘We’ll meet you on some corner.
Page 136 and 137: oom below.‘Imagine marrying anybo
Page 138 and 139: That’s why I can’t really call
Page 140 and 141: tions.‘Sit down Daisy.’ Tom’s
Page 142 and 143: to sob helplessly. ‘I did love hi
Page 144 and 145: chin. Then I turned back to Gatsby
Page 146 and 147: his neighbor was trying to persuade
Page 148 and 149: a gasping moan.‘There’s some ba
Page 150 and 151: forty. Going fifty, sixty.’‘Com
Page 152 and 153: dows bloomed with light among the v
Page 154 and 155: ‘Well, I tried to swing the wheel
Page 156 and 157: and get some sleep.’He shook his
Page 158 and 159: ‘You ought to go away,’ I said.
Page 160 and 161: was breathless, who was somehow bet
Page 162 and 163: hand.That force took shape in the m
Page 164 and 165: ‘I’m going to drain the pool to
Page 166 and 167: ‘Suppose I don’t go to Southamp
Page 168 and 169: asked you a question. Did you ever
Page 170 and 171: Mrs. Wilson had been running away f
Page 172 and 173: word with the butler that if any on
Page 174 and 175: Chapter 9After two years I remember
Page 176 and 177: Information, but by the time I had
Page 180 and 181: from the bed, and lay down stiffly
Page 182 and 183: She took a step toward me and began
Page 184 and 185: went next door and found Mr. Gatz w
Page 186 and 187: and the servants came in and stood
Page 188 and 189: the lost Swede towns but the thrill
Page 190 and 191: other bad driver? Well, I met anoth
Page 192 and 193: it was he who drove Daisy and Gatsb
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The Great Gatsby - Holmdel

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