«Великий Гэтсби» и другие лучшие произведения Ф.С. Фицджеральда. Френсис Скотт Фицджеральд

      When the phone rang that afternoon and Long Distance said Chicago was calling I thought this would be Daisy at last. But the connection came through as a man’s voice, very thin and far away.

      ‘This is Slagle speaking…’

      ‘Yes?’ The name was unfamiliar.

      ‘Hell of a note, isn’t it? Get my wire?’

      ‘There haven’t been any wires.’

      ‘Young Parke’s in trouble,’ he said rapidly. ‘They picked him up when he handed the bonds over the counter. They got a circular from New York giving ’em the numbers just five minutes before. What d’you know about that, hey? You never can tell in these hick towns – ’

      ‘Hello!’ I interrupted breathlessly. ‘Look here – this isn’t Mr. 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 the connection was broken.

      I think it was on the third day that a telegram signed Henry C. Gatz arrived from a town in Minnesota. It said only that the sender was leaving immediately and to postpone the funeral until he came.

      It was Gatsby’s father, a solemn old man, very helpless and dismayed, bundled up in a long cheap ulster against the warm September day. His eyes leaked continuously with excitement, and when I took the bag and umbrella from his hands he began to pull so incessantly at his sparse grey beard that I had difficulty in getting off his coat. He was on the point of collapse, so I took him into the music room and made him sit down while I sent for something to eat. But he wouldn’t eat, and the glass of milk spilled from his trembling hand.

      ‘I saw it in the Chicago newspaper,’ he said. ‘It was all in the Chicago newspaper. I started right away.’

      ‘I didn’t know how to reach you.’

      His eyes, seeing nothing, moved ceaselessly about the room.

      ‘It was a madman,’ 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?’

      I took him into the drawing-room, where his son lay, and left him there. Some little boys had come up on the steps and were looking into the hall; when I told them who had arrived, they went reluctantly away.

      After a little while Mr. Gatz opened the door and came out, his mouth ajar, his face flushed slightly, his eyes leaking isolated and unpunctual tears. He had reached an age where death no longer has the quality of ghastly surprise, and when he looked around him now for the first time and saw the height and splendour of the hall and the great rooms opening out from it into other rooms, his grief began to be mixed with an awed pride. I helped him to a bedroom upstairs; while he took off his coat and vest I told him that all arrangements 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 body West.’

      He shook his head.

      ‘Jimmy always liked it better down East. He rose up to his position 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 a young 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 like James J. Hill[98]. He’d of helped build up the country.’

      ‘That’s true,’ I said, uncomfortably.

      He fumbled at the embroidered coverlet, trying to take it from the bed, and lay down stiffly – was instantly asleep.

      That night an obviously frightened person called up, and demanded to know who I was before he would give his name.

      ‘This is Mr. Carraway,’ I said.

      ‘Oh!’