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The Great Gatsby - Chapter Four | Full Audiobook · Chapter by Chapter — The Lost Library

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Welcome back to chapter by Chapter, the audio book
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experience. We're continuing The Great
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Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. If this is your first time here,
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start from the beginning of this season and follow Nick
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Carraway's story from the very start.
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And if you've been with us since Chapter 3, welcome back.
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We've been inside the party. We've met Gatsby face to face,
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charming, composed and full of carefully chosen words.
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Now, the morning after has come and gone, and Nick is starting
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to ask the question everyone around Gatsby eventually asks.
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Who is he really? Follow the show so you never
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miss a chapter and drop a comment with the classic you
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want us to read next. Now sit back and let's continue
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the story. Chapter 4.
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On Sunday morning, as church bells chimed in the villages
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along the shore, the world and its mistress returned to
1:03
Gatsby's estate, sparkling with laughter across his lawn.
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He's a bootlegger, the young women said, drifting between his
1:12
cocktails and his flowers. Once he killed a man who
1:16
discovered he was related to von Hindenburg and a second cousin
1:20
to the devil. Pass me a rose, darling, and
1:23
pour me one last drop into that crystal glass.
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Once I scribbled the names of those who visited Gatsby's house
1:32
that summer on the blank spaces of a timetable.
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It's an old timetable now, crumbling at the creases marked
1:40
with this schedule in effect July 5th, 1922.
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Yet I can still make out the faded names, and they offer a
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clearer picture than my vague descriptions of those who
1:52
enjoyed Gatsby's hospitality, all while remaining blissfully
1:56
ignorant of the man himself. From East Egg arrived the
2:01
Chester Beckers and the Leeches, along with a man named Bunsen,
2:05
whom I knew from Yale, and Doctor Webster Civet, who
2:09
drowned last summer in Maine. There were the Horn Beams and
2:13
the Willy Voltaires and an entire clan called the
2:17
Blackbucks, who always huddled in a corner lifting their noses
2:21
like goats at anyone who approached the ismays and the
2:26
Christies were there too, or rather Hubert Auerbach and Mr.
2:30
Christie's wife, and Edgar Beaver, whose hair, they say,
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inexplicably turned cotton white. 1 winter afternoon, I
2:38
recall Clarence Endive from East Egg.
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He attended only once, dressed in white knickerbockers, and
2:45
ended up in a brawl with a vagrant named Eddie in the
2:49
garden. From further out on the island
2:52
came the Cheadles and the ORP Schraders, along with the
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Stonewall, Jackson Abrams from Georgia and the fish guards and
3:00
Ripley Snell. Snell was present three days
3:03
before he landed in the Penicentiary, so inebriated on
3:07
the gravel drive that Mrs. Ulysses Sweat's car ran over his
3:12
right hand. The Danceies were there, along
3:16
with SB Whitebait, who was well past 60.
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Maurice A Flink, the Hammerheads, and Beluga the
3:24
tobacco importer, accompanied by Beluga's entourage from West
3:29
Egg, arrived the Poles, the Mole Readies, Cecil Roebuck, Cecil
3:34
Shone, Gulick the State Senator, and Newton Orchid, who had a
3:38
grip on film's par excellence. Eckhaus Clyde Cohen, Don S
3:44
Schwartz, the son, and Arthur McCarty were all tied to the
3:48
film industry in various ways. The Cat Lips, the Bem Bergs, and
3:53
G Earl Muldoon, brother of the infamous Muldoon who later
3:57
strangled his wife, also made an appearance.
4:00
Da Fontano, the promoter, showed up, as did Ed La Gross, James B
4:05
Rotgut, Ferret, the Jungs, and Ernest Lily, all there to
4:10
gamble. When Ferret drifted into the
4:13
garden, it signaled he was broke and associated traction would
4:17
need to perform well the next day.
4:20
A man named Clipspringer was such a regular presence that he
4:23
earned the nickname The Border. I doubt he had another place to
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call home. Among the theatrical crowd were
4:30
Gus Ways, Horace O'donovan, Lester Meyer, George Duckweed
4:36
and Francis Bull. From New York came the Chromes,
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the Back Hissens, the Deneckers, Russell Betty, the Corrigans,
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the Kelleher's, the Doers, the Scullys, SW Belcher, the Smirks,
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the young Quins, now divorced, and Henry L Palmetto, who ended
4:55
his life by leaping in front of a subway train at Times Square.
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Benny Mcclenaghan always arrived with four women in tow.
5:04
Though they were never exactly the same individuals, they were
5:07
so strikingly similar that it felt as if they had been there
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before. Their names escape me perhaps
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Jacqueline, or maybe Consuela, Gloria, Junie, or June.
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Their surnames were either the lyrical kind, reminiscent of
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Flowers and Months, or the formidable ones of prominent
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American industrialists, whom they might admit to being
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related to if pressed among the crowd.
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I distinctly recall Faustina O'Brien making an appearance at
5:38
least once, as well as the Baedeker sisters, young Brewer
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who had lost his nose in the war, Mr. Albrochtsberger and his
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fiancee, Miss Hogg, Ardita Fitzpaters, Mr. P Jewett, a
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former leader of the American Legion, and Miss Claudia Hip,
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accompanied by a man rumored to be her chauffeur.
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There was also a Prince of some kind whom we referred to as
6:03
Duke, but his real name, if I ever knew it, has slipped my
6:07
mind. All these people gathered at
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Gatsby's estate during the summer.
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One morning in late July, at precisely 9:00, Gatsby's
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magnificent car rumbled up the rocky drive to my door,
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announcing its arrival with a melodic blast from its three
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toned horn. This was the first time he had
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personally visited me, despite my attendance at two of his
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parties, my rides on his hydroplane, and my frequent
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enjoyment of his beach at his insistent invitation.
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Good morning, old sport. You're joining me for lunch
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today, and I thought we could drive together.
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He was perched on the dashboard of his car with that uniquely
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American agility, A fluidity borne, I suspect, from a youth
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devoid of heavy labor and shaped instead by our erratic,
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energetic sports. This restless energy constantly
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seeped through his otherwise meticulous demeanor.
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He was never entirely still. There was always a foot tapping
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or a hand opening and closing. With impatience, he noticed.
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I admired his car. Isn't it something old sport?
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He hopped off to give me a clearer view.
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Haven't you seen it before? I had.
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Everyone had. It was a creamy masterpiece,
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gleaming with nickel, it's extravagant length bulging with
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opulent hat boxes, supper boxes and tool boxes, and layered with
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a maze of windshields reflecting a dozen Suns.
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Settling into the green leather cocoon behind multiple panes of
7:46
glass, we headed into town. Over the past month, I'd spoken
7:50
with him maybe half a dozen times and to my disappointment,
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found he had little to say. My initial impression of him as
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a man of some vague significance had gradually diminished,
8:02
leaving him merely as the owner of the elaborate Roadhouse next
8:06
door. Then came that unsettling Dr. We
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hadn't even reached West Egg Village when Gatsby started
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leaving, his polished sentences hanging in the air, tapping his
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knee uncertainly through the fabric of his caramel colored
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suit. Listen, old sport.
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He suddenly burst out. What do you really think of me?
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Caught off guard, I began offering the usual vague
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responses such a question demands.
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Well, I'm going to tell you something about my life.
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He cut in. I don't want you to get the
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wrong impression from all these stories you hear.
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So he was aware of the strange rumors that swirled through his
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own gatherings. I'll tell you the honest truth.
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His right hand seemed to summon divine judgement to bear
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witness. I come from wealthy people in
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the Midwest. All of them are gone now.
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I was raised in America but educated at Oxford because my
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ancestors have been going there for generations.
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It's a family tradition. He glanced at me sideways, and I
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understood why Jordan Baker thought he was lying.
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He rushed through Educated at Oxford, or swallowed it, or
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choked on it, as if it had troubled him before.
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With that doubt, his whole story unravelled, and I began to
9:23
wonder if there wasn't something a bit sinister about him after
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all. What part of the Midwest?
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I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
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San Francisco. I see my whole family passed
9:36
away, and I inherited A substantial amount of money.
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His voice carried a weight, as if the memory of losing his
9:43
family still lingered heavily. For a moment I thought he might
9:47
be joking, but one look at him dispelled that notion.
9:51
After that, I lived like a young Prince across Europe's capitals,
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Paris, Venice, Rome, collecting jewels, mostly rubies, going on
10:00
big game hunts, dabbling and painting, all for my own
10:04
pleasure while trying to forget something deeply sorrowful from
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my past. I barely managed to suppress a
10:11
laugh of disbelief. His words were so cliche that
10:15
they conjured nothing but the image of a cartoonish figure
10:18
turbaned in leaking sawdust, chasing a tiger through the Bois
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de Boulogne. Then the war came, old sport.
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It was a welcome distraction, and I tried earnestly to die,
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but I seemed to lead a charmed life.
10:32
I took a Commission as a first Lieutenant at the start in the
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Argonne Forest. I LED what was left of my
10:38
machine gun battalion so far ahead that there was a half mile
10:42
on either side where the infantry couldn't keep up.
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We held our ground for two days and two nights, 130 men with 16
10:51
Lewis guns. And when the infantry finally
10:53
caught up, they found the Insignia of three German
10:57
divisions among the dead. I was promoted to major, and
11:00
every Allied nation awarded me a decoration, even Montenegro.
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Little Montenegro on the Adriatic Sea.
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Little Montenegro. He lifted the words as if they
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were a toast, nodding with a smile that understood
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Montenegro's turbulent past and empathized with the courageous
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struggles of its people. His smile fully grasped the
11:22
series of national events that had inspired this tribute from
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Montenegro's passionate heart. My skepticism was now
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overwhelmed by fascination. It felt like Quickly flipping
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through a dozen magazines, he reached into his pocket and a
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piece of metal hanging from a ribbon dropped into my hand.
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That's the one from Montenegro. To my surprise, it looked
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genuine. Orderee de Denilo Montenegro.
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Nicholas Rex, Turn it over. Major Jay Gatsby for valor.
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Extraordinary. Here's something else.
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I always carry a memento from my Oxford days.
12:00
It was taken in Trinity Quad. The man on my left is now the
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Earl of Doncaster. It was a photograph of a half
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dozen young men in Blazers lounging in an archway beyond
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which a multitude of Spires could be seen.
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There was Gatsby, looking slightly but not much younger,
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with a cricket bat in his hand. Then it was all true.
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I saw the tiger skins blazing like fire in his palace on the
12:27
Grand Canal. I watched him open a chest of
12:30
rubies, their deep Crimson glow a balm for the relentless ache
12:34
of his shattered heart. I'm going to ask something
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significant of you today. He said, tucking away his
12:41
mementos with a sense of satisfaction.
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So I thought you should know a bit about me.
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I didn't want you to think I was just some nobody.
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You see, I often find myself among strangers because I wander
12:53
from place to place, trying to forget the sorrowful events of
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my past. He paused.
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You'll hear about it this afternoon at lunch.
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No, this afternoon I happen to learn that you're taking Miss
13:06
Baker to tea. Are you saying you're in love
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with Miss Baker? No.
13:10
Old sports, I'm not. But Miss Baker has kindly agreed
13:14
to talk to you about this matter.
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I had no clue what this matter was, and I was more irritated
13:20
than intrigued. I hadn't invited Jordan to tea
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to discuss Mr. J Gatsby. I was sure the request would be
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something utterly outlandish, and for a moment I regretted
13:31
ever stepping on to his crowded lawn.
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He fell silent, his sense of propriety intensifying as we
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approached the city. We passed Port Roosevelt,
13:41
catching a glimpse of ocean going ships with their
13:43
distinctive red belts and speed through a cobbled slung lined
13:47
with the dim, still occupied salons of the faded gilt early
13:52
1900s. Then the valley of ashes
13:55
unfurled on either side of us, and I caught sight of Missus
13:58
Wilson, her energy palpable as she strained at the garage pump.
14:02
As we drove by with fenders flared like wings, we cast light
14:07
across half of Astoria. Only half, because as we wove
14:11
through the pillars of the elevated train, I heard the
14:14
familiar jug jug spat of a motorcycle, and a frantic
14:18
policeman pulled up alongside us.
14:20
All right, old sport. Gatsby called out.
14:23
We slowed down. He took a white card from his
14:26
wallet and flashed it before the officer's eyes.
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Right you are, The officer agreed, tipping his cap.
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Pardon me, what was that? I asked.
14:35
The picture of Oxford. I once did the commissioner a
14:38
favor, and now he sends me a Christmas card every year.
14:42
We crossed the great bridge, sunlight flickering through the
14:45
girders on the moving cars, with the city rising across the river
14:49
like white mounds and sugar cubes, all conjured from money
14:53
that doesn't smell. The view from the Queensboro
14:56
Bridge always feels like seeing the city for the first time,
15:00
with its wild promise of all the world's mystery and beauty.
15:04
A hearse carrying a dead man past us, piled high with
15:08
flowers, followed by two carriages with drawn blinds, and
15:13
then by more lively carriages for friends.
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The friends peered out at us with the tragic eyes and short
15:20
upper lips typical of southeastern Europe, and I was
15:23
pleased that Gatsby's magnificent car was part of
15:27
their somber procession. As we crossed Blackwell's
15:30
Island, a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur with
15:35
three stylish black passengers inside, two men and a woman.
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I laughed out loud as their eyes rolled toward us in proud
15:44
defiance. Anything can happen now that
15:47
we've crossed this bridge, I thought.
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Anything at all, even Gatsby, could happen without any
15:53
particular surprise. It was a blazing noon in a cool,
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well ventilated cellar on 42nd Street.
16:02
I met Gatsby for lunch. Blinking away the brightness
16:05
from outside, I spotted him in the dim ante room, engaged in
16:10
conversation with another man. Mr. Carraway, meet my friend.
16:14
Mr. Wolfsheim. A small man with a flat nose
16:18
lifted his large head to look at me, his nostrils adorned with
16:22
two impressive Tufts of hair. It took a moment for me to find
16:26
his tiny eyes in the dim light, so I took one look at him.
16:30
Mr. Wolfsheim said, shaking my hand with earnestness.
16:34
And guess what? I did what?
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I asked politely, but it seemed he wasn't speaking to me as he
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let go of my hand and turned his attention to Gatsby with his
16:45
expressive nose. I handed the money to Kat's bow
16:49
and said, all right, Kat's bow, don't give him a cent until he
16:53
keeps quiet. And he did, right then and
16:56
there. Gatsby took hold of both our
16:59
arms and LED us into the restaurant, causing Mr.
17:02
Wolfsheim to swallow the sentence he was about to start
17:05
and drift into a dreamy silence. Highballs.
17:09
The head waiter inquired. This place is nice, Mr.
17:13
Wolfsheim remarked, gazing at the Presbyterian nymphs painted
17:17
on the ceiling. But I prefer the place across
17:19
the street. Yes, highballs, Gatsby agreed,
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then turned to Mr. Wolfsheim. It's too hot over there.
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Hot and cramped, yes, but it's full of memories.
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What place is that? I inquired.
17:34
The old metropole. The old metropole, Mr. Wolfsheim
17:39
repeated, his voice heavy with nostalgia.
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It's filled with faces that are no more, filled with friends who
17:46
are gone forever. I can't forget as long as I
17:49
live. The night they shot Rosie
17:51
Rosenthal there. There were six of us at the
17:54
table, and Rosie had been eating and drinking all evening.
17:58
When it was nearly morning, the waiter approached him with a
18:01
strange expression and said someone wanted to speak to him
18:05
outside. All right, Rosie said, starting
18:08
to rise, but I pulled him back into his chair.
18:12
Let them come in here if they want you, Rosie, but don't you
18:15
dare step outside this room. It was 4 in the morning then,
18:19
and if we'd raised the blinds we'd have seen the first light
18:23
of day. Did he go?
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I asked, feigning innocence. Of course he went.
18:28
Mr. Wolfsheim's nose flared with indignation.
18:32
He turned at the door and said don't let that waiter take my
18:35
coffee. Then he stepped onto the
18:38
sidewalk and they shot him three times in the stomach before
18:41
driving off. 4 of them were executed, five including Becker,
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he corrected, his nostrils flaring with interest.
18:50
As you looked at me, I hear you're seeking a business
18:53
connection. The contrast between these
18:56
statements was jarring. Gatsby spoke up for me.
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Oh no, he said quickly. This isn't the man.
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No, Mr. Wolfsheim seemed let down.
19:06
This is just a friend I mentioned.
19:08
We discussed that another time. My apologies, Mr. Wolfsheim
19:12
said. I mistook you for someone else.
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A rich hash was served, and Mr. Wolfsheim, momentarily setting
19:20
aside the nostalgic air of the old metropole, began to eat with
19:24
a kind of fierce delicacy. His eyes wandered slowly around
19:29
the room, completing a full circle as he turned to
19:32
scrutinize the people directly behind us.
19:35
I suspect that if I hadn't been there, he might have taken a
19:39
quick peek under our table. Listen, old sport, Gatsby said,
19:44
leaning in closer. I worry I might have upset you
19:47
earlier in the car. His smile reappeared, but this
19:51
time I resisted its charm. I don't like mysteries, I
19:55
replied. And I can't understand why you
19:57
won't just be straightforward and tell me what you want.
20:01
Why does everything have to go through Miss Baker?
20:04
Oh, there's nothing shady about it, he reassured me.
20:08
Miss Baker's a real sport, you know, and she'd never do
20:11
anything improper. Suddenly he checked his watch,
20:14
sprang up and rushed out of the room, leaving me alone with Mr.
20:19
Wolfsheim at the table. He needs to make a call, Mr.
20:22
Wolfsheim explained, watching him leave.
20:25
A fine fellow, isn't he? Handsome and a true gentleman?
20:29
Yes, he's an Oxford man. Oh, he attended Oxford College
20:34
in England. Are you familiar with Oxford
20:37
College? I've heard of it.
20:39
It's one of the most renowned colleges in the world.
20:43
Have you known Gatsby for a long time?
20:45
I asked. For several years.
20:47
He replied with a sense of satisfaction.
20:50
I had the pleasure of meeting him just after the war, but I
20:54
knew right away I had encountered a man of true
20:57
refinement. After just an hour of
20:59
conversation, I thought to myself, here's the kind of man
21:03
you'd want to bring home to meet your mother and sister.
21:07
He paused. I noticed you're looking at my
21:09
cufflinks. I hadn't been, but now I did.
21:13
They were made of strangely familiar pieces of ivory.
21:17
Finest specimens of human molars, he told me.
21:21
Well, I examined them. That's a very intriguing
21:25
concept. Yes.
21:27
He tucked his sleeves back under his coat.
21:30
Yes, Gatsby is very particular about women.
21:34
He would never even glance at a friend's wife.
21:37
When the man who was the subject of this innate trust returned to
21:41
the table and sat down, Mr. Wolfsheim finished his coffee
21:44
abruptly and stood up. I've enjoyed my lunch, he
21:48
declared. And I'm going to leave you two
21:50
young men before I overstay my welcome.
21:53
Don't rush off, Meyer Gatsby said, though without much
21:57
enthusiasm. Mr. Wolfsheim lifted his hand in
22:00
a kind of blessing. You're very kind, but I belong
22:04
to a different era, he stated solemnly.
22:07
You sit here and talk about your sports and your young women and
22:10
your. He gestured with his hand,
22:12
filling in an imaginary word. As for me, I'm 50 years old and
22:17
I won't impose on you any longer.
22:20
As he shook hands and turned away, his sorrowful nose
22:23
quivered. I wondered if I had
22:25
inadvertently offended him. He gets very sentimental
22:29
sometimes, Gatsby explained. Today is one of those
22:32
sentimental days. He's quite a figure in New York,
22:35
a fixture on Broadway. Who is he, anyway?
22:39
An actor? No, a dentist?
22:42
Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he's a gambler.
22:45
Gatsby paused, then added with a cool detachment.
22:48
He's the one who rigged the World Series back in 1919.
22:52
Rigged the World Series? I echoed.
22:55
The notion left me reeling. I recalled, naturally, that the
22:59
World Series had been rigged in 1919.
23:02
But if I had ever considered it, I thought of it as something
23:05
that just happened, the conclusion of some unavoidable
23:08
sequence. It never crossed my mind that a
23:11
single person could manipulate the trust of 50 million people
23:15
with the precision and intent of a burglar cracking a safe.
23:20
How did he manage that? I asked after a moment.
23:23
He simply recognized the opportunity.
23:26
Why isn't he in prison? Gatsby asked.
23:29
They can't touch him, old sport. He's too clever.
23:32
I insisted on settling the bill. As the waiter returned with my
23:35
change, I noticed Tom Buchanan across the bustling room.
23:40
Come with me for a moment, I need to greet someone.
23:42
Upon seeing us, Tom sprang up and took several steps in our
23:46
direction. Where have you been?
23:48
He asked eagerly. Daisy's furious because you
23:51
haven't called. This is Mr. Gatsby, Mr.
23:54
Buchanan. They shook hands briefly, and an
23:56
awkward, unfamiliar look of embarrassment crossed Gatsby's
24:00
face. How have you been, anyway?
24:02
What brings you all the way up here for a meal?
24:05
I've been having lunch with Mr. Gatsby.
24:07
I turned to look at Mr. Gatsby, but he had already disappeared.
24:12
1 October day in 1917. Jordan Baker recounted that
24:16
afternoon, sitting up very straight on a stiff chair in the
24:19
tea garden at the Plaza. I was wandering from one place
24:23
to another, partly on the sidewalks and partly on the
24:26
lawns. I preferred the lawns because I
24:28
wore shoes from England with rubber knobs on the soles that
24:31
gripped the soft earth. I also had on a new Plaid skirt
24:35
that fluttered a bit in the breeze, and whenever it did, the
24:38
red, white and blue banners in front of all the houses would
24:42
stretch out stiffly and seem to tut, tut, tut, tut, tut in
24:45
disapproval. The largest of the banners and
24:48
the most expansive lawn belonged to Daisy Faye's house.
24:52
She was just 18-2 years older than me and by far the most
24:56
popular young woman in Louisville.
24:58
She dressed in white, drove a little white roadster, and all
25:02
day long the phone rang in her house with eager young officers
25:06
from Camp Taylor vying for the chance to spend the evening with
25:09
her. Anyway, for an hour that
25:12
morning, as I came across from her house, her white roadster
25:16
was parked by the curb. She was in it, sitting with a
25:19
Lieutenant I had never seen before.
25:21
They were so absorbed in each other that she didn't notice me
25:24
until I was just five feet away. Hello, Jordan.
25:28
She called out unexpectedly. Please come here.
25:31
I felt flattered that she wanted to talk to me because among all
25:35
the older girls, she was the one I admired the most.
25:38
She asked if I was heading to the Red Cross to make bandages.
25:42
I was. Then she asked if I could tell
25:44
them she wouldn't be able to make it that day.
25:47
The officer looked at Daisy as she spoke.
25:49
In a way, every young girl dreams of being looked at at
25:52
least once, and because it seemed so romantic to me, I've
25:56
remembered that moment ever since.
25:58
His name was Jay Gatsby and I didn't see him again for over 4
26:03
years. Even after meeting him on Long
26:05
Island, I didn't realize he was the same man.
26:09
That was in 1917. By the following year, I had a
26:12
few suitors of my own and started playing in tournaments,
26:15
so I didn't see Daisy often. She mingled with a slightly
26:19
older crowd when she went out at all.
26:22
Wild rumors swirled about her, how her mother had caught her
26:25
packing her bag 1 winter night to go to New York and say
26:28
goodbye to a soldier heading overseas.
26:31
She was effectively stopped, but she didn't speak to her family
26:34
for several weeks after that. She stopped flirting with the
26:38
soldiers and instead spent time with a few young men in town who
26:42
were flat footed and shortsighted, unable to join the
26:46
army at all. By the following autumn, her
26:48
spirits had lifted and she was as lively as ever.
26:52
She made her social debut after the Armistice, and by February
26:56
she was reportedly engaged to a man from New Orleans.
26:59
In June, she married Tom Buchanan from Chicago, with a
27:03
grandeur that Louisville had never witnessed before.
27:06
He arrived with 100 guests in four private rail cars, rented
27:10
an entire floor of the Muhlbach Hotel, and the day before the
27:14
wedding he gifted her a Pearl necklace worth $350,000.
27:20
I was one of her bridesmaids. I entered her room half an hour
27:23
before the bridal dinner and found her lying on her bed, as
27:26
enchanting as a June knight in her floral dress and as drunk as
27:30
a sailor. She held a bottle of Saturn in
27:33
one hand and a letter in the other.
27:36
Congratulate me, she slurred. Never had a drink before, but
27:40
oh, how I do enjoy it. What's wrong, Daisy?
27:44
I was frightened. I must admit.
27:46
I had never seen a girl in such a state before here deeries she
27:51
fumble around in a wastebasket she had on the bed with her and
27:54
pulled out the string of pearls. Take them downstairs and return
27:58
them to whoever they belong to. Tell them daisies changed her
28:02
mind. Say daisies changed her mind.
28:06
She began to cry. Tears flowed endlessly.
28:09
I hurried out to find her mother's maid, and together we
28:12
locked the door and got her into a cold bath.
28:16
She clung to the letter, taking it into the tub with her,
28:19
squeezing it into a wet ball, and only allowed me to leave it
28:23
in the soap dish when she saw it disintegrating like snow.
28:26
But she didn't utter another word.
28:29
We gave her spirits of ammonia, placed ice on her forehead, and
28:33
fastened her back into her dress.
28:35
Half an hour later when we stepped out of the room, the
28:38
pearls were around her neck and the incident was over.
28:41
The next day at 5:00, she married Tom Buchanan without a
28:45
tremor and embarked on a three month trip to the South Seas.
28:50
I saw them in Santa Barbara when they returned, and I thought I'd
28:53
never seen a girl so infatuated with her husband.
28:57
If he left the room for even a moment, she'd glance around
29:00
uneasily and ask where's Tom gone, wearing the most
29:04
distracted expression until she saw him reenter.
29:07
She would sit on the sand with his head in her lap for hours,
29:11
gently tracing her fingers over his eyes and gazing at him with
29:15
unfathomable delight. It was touching to see them
29:18
together. It made you laugh in a quiet,
29:21
captivated way. And that was in August, a week
29:24
after I left Santa Barbara. Tom had an accident on the
29:27
Ventura Road one night, crashing into a wagon and tearing a front
29:32
wheel off his car. The girl with him made the news
29:35
as well. Her arm was broken.
29:37
She was one of the chambermaids from the Santa Barbara Hotel.
29:41
Then, about six weeks ago, she heard Gatsby's name for the
29:44
first time in years. It was when I asked you, Do you
29:48
remember if you knew Gatsby and West Egg?
29:51
After you left, she came into my room, woke me up and asked what
29:55
Gatsby. When I described him, still half
29:58
asleep, she said in the most peculiar voice that it must be
30:03
the man she once knew. It wasn't until that moment that
30:06
I realized this Gatsby was the same officer who had once been
30:10
in her white car. After Jordan Baker had finished
30:14
recounting everything, we had left the Plaza for about 30
30:17
minutes and we're now riding in a Victoria through Central Park.
30:21
The sun had dipped behind the towering apartments of the movie
30:24
stars in the West 50s, and the clear voices of children already
30:29
gathered like crickets on the grass, floated up through the
30:31
warm twilight. I'm the Sheikh of Arabi.
30:35
Your love belongs to me. At night, when you're asleep
30:39
into your tent aisle creep. It was a strange coincidence, I
30:44
remarked, but it wasn't a coincidence at all.
30:47
Why not? Gatsby bought that house so
30:50
Daisy would be just across the Bay.
30:53
So it hadn't been merely the stars he reached for on that
30:57
June night. He became real to me then,
31:00
suddenly emerging from the womb of his aimless grandeur.
31:04
He wants to know, Jordan continued.
31:07
If you'll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then
31:10
let him come over. The simplicity of the request
31:13
startled me. He had waited five years and
31:16
purchased a mansion where he scattered Starlight to passing
31:20
moths just so he could come over one afternoon to a stranger's
31:24
garden. Did I have to know all this
31:27
before he could ask such a small favor?
31:30
He's nervous, having waited so long, he worried you might take
31:34
offense. Beneath it all, he's genuinely
31:37
tough. Something unsettled me.
31:40
Why didn't he ask you to set up a meeting?
31:43
He wants her to see his house, she explained.
31:45
And your place is right next door.
31:48
Oh, I think he half hoped she'd just wander into one of his
31:52
parties one night, but she never did.
31:55
So he started casually asking around if anyone knew her, and I
31:59
was the first he found. That night.
32:01
He called me over at his party, and you should have heard the
32:04
elaborate way he led up to it. Naturally, I immediately
32:08
suggested a lunch in New York, and I thought he'd lose his
32:11
mind. He kept insisting I don't want
32:14
to do anything unusual, I want to see her right next door.
32:19
When I mentioned you were a close friend of Tom's, he almost
32:22
dropped the whole plan. He doesn't know much about Tom,
32:25
though he claims he's been reading a Chicago paper for
32:28
years, just hoping to catch a mention of Daisy's name.
32:32
It was dark now, and as we passed under a small bridge, I
32:36
put my arm around Jordan's golden shoulder, drawing her
32:39
close and inviting her to dinner.
32:41
Suddenly my thoughts drifted away from Daisy and Gatsby,
32:45
focusing instead on this sharp, self-contained person who
32:49
embraced a universal skepticism, leaning back with a jaunty ease.
32:54
Within the circle of my arm a phrase began to echo with a kind
32:58
of intoxicating thrill. There are only the pursued, the
33:02
pursuing, the busy and the tired, and Daisy deserves
33:06
something meaningful in her life.
33:08
Jordan murmured to me. Does she want to see Gatsby?
33:12
She can't know about it. Gatsby doesn't want her to find
33:15
out. You're just supposed to invite
33:17
her over for tea. We moved past a barrier of dark
33:21
trees, and then the facade of 59th St. appeared, a block of
33:25
delicate pale light casting its glow into the park.
33:29
Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose ethereal
33:33
face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs.
33:37
So I pulled the girl beside me closer, tightening my arms
33:41
around her. Her pale, disdainful mouth
33:44
curved into a smile, and I drew her even nearer, this time to my
33:48
face. And that brings us to the close
33:51
of Chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald.
33:56
This chapter pulled back the curtain on nearly everything we
34:00
got Gatsby's carefully rehearsed life story, the Midwest fortune
34:05
family, the Oxford education, the medals from Montenegro
34:10
delivered with just enough rehearsed confidence to make
34:14
Nick almost believe it. We met Meyer Wolfsheim, the man
34:18
with human molar cufflinks who fixed the 1919 World Series, and
34:24
suddenly Gatsby's world became a lot darker and more real.
34:29
And then Jordan finally told Nick the truth.
34:33
The parties, the mansion, the green light across the water,
34:37
all of it was never about wealth or status.
34:40
It was always about one thing. Getting close enough to Daisy to
34:45
walk back across the Bay and pretend five years never
34:48
happened. Gatsby didn't buy that house by
34:51
accident. He bought it so he could see her
34:54
light from his lawn, and now Nick has been asked to make it
34:58
happen. Thank you for listening to
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