He got up, his eyes still flashing between Gatsby and his wife. No one moved.
Come on! His temper cracked a little. Whats the matter, anyhow? If were going to town, lets start.
His hand, trembling with his effort at self-control, bore to his lips the last of his glass of ale. Daisys voice got us to our feet and out on to the blazing gravel drive.
Are we just going to go? she objected. Like this? Arent we going to let anyone smoke a cigarette first?
Everybody smoked all through lunch.
Oh, lets have fun, she begged him. Its too hot to fuss.
He didnt answer.
Have it your own way, she said. Come on, Jordan.
They went upstairs to get ready while we three men stood there shuffling the hot pebbles with our feet. A silver curve of the moon hovered already in the western sky. Gatsby started to speak, changed his mind, but not before Tom wheeled and faced him expectantly.
Have you got your stables here? asked Gatsby with an effort.
About a quarter of a mile down the road.
Oh.
A pause.
I dont see the idea of going to town, broke out Tom savagely. Women get these notions in their heads
Shall we take anything to drink? called Daisy from an upper window.
Ill get some whisky, answered Tom. He went inside.
Gatsby turned to me rigidly:
I cant say anything in his house, old sport.
Shes got an indiscreet voice, I remarked. Its full of I hesitated.
Her voice is full of money, he said suddenly.
That was it. Id never understood before. It was full of money that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals song of it High in a white palace the kings daughter, the golden girl
Tom came out of the house wrapping a quart[88] bottle in a towel, followed by Daisy and Jordan wearing small tight hats of metallic cloth and carrying light capes over their arms.
Shall we all go in my car? suggested Gatsby. He felt the hot, green leather of the seat. I ought to have left it in the shade.
Is it standard shift? demanded Tom.
Yes.
Well, you take my coupe and let me drive your car to town.
The suggestion was distasteful to Gatsby.
I dont think theres much gas, he objected.
Plenty of gas, said Tom boisterously. He looked at the gauge. And if it runs out I can stop at a drug-store. You can buy anything at a drug-store nowadays.
A pause followed this apparently pointless remark. Daisy looked at Tom frowning, and an indefinable expression, at once definitely unfamiliar and vaguely recognizable, as if I had only heard it described in words, passed over Gatsbys face.
Come on, Daisy, said Tom, pressing her with his hand toward Gatsbys car. Ill take you in this circus wagon.
He opened the door, but she moved out from the circle of his arm.
You take Nick and Jordan. Well follow you in the coupe.
She walked close to Gatsby, touching his coat with her hand. Jordan and Tom and I got into the front seat of Gatsbys car, Tom pushed the unfamiliar gears tentatively, and we shot off into the oppressive heat, leaving them out of sight behind.
Did you see that? demanded Tom.
See what?
He looked at me keenly, realizing that Jordan and I must have known all along.
You think Im pretty dumb, dont you? he suggested. Perhaps I am, but I have a almost a second sight, sometimes, that tells me what to do. Maybe you dont believe that, but science
He paused. The immediate contingency overtook him, pulled him back from the edge of the theoretical abyss.
Ive made a small investigation of this fellow, he continued. I could have gone deeper if Id known
Do you mean youve been to a medium? inquired Jordan humorously.
What? Confused, he stared at us as we laughed. A medium?
About Gatsby.
About Gatsby! No, I havent. I said Id been making a small investigation of his past.
And you found he was an Oxford man, said Jordan helpfully.
An Oxford man! He was incredulous. Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.
Nevertheless hes an Oxford man.
Oxford, New Mexico, snorted Tom contemptuously, or something like that.
Listen, Tom. If youre such a snob, why did you invite him to lunch? demanded Jordan crossly.
Daisy invited him; she knew him before we were married God knows where!
We were all irritable now with the fading ale, and aware of it we drove for a while in silence. Then as Doctor T. J. Eckleburgs faded eyes came into sight down the road, I remembered Gatsbys caution about gasoline.
Weve got enough to get us to town, said Tom.
But theres a garage right here, objected Jordan. I dont want to get stalled in this baking heat.
Tom threw on both brakes impatiently, and we slid to an abrupt dusty spot under Wilsons sign. After a moment the proprietor emerged from the interior of his establishment and gazed hollow-eyed at the car.
Lets have some gas! cried Tom roughly. What do you think we stopped for to admire the view?
Im sick, said Wilson without moving. Been sick all day.
Whats the matter?
Im all run down.
Well, shall I help myself? Tom demanded. You sounded well enough on the phone.
With an effort Wilson left the shade and support of the doorway and, breathing hard, unscrewed the cap of the tank. In the sunlight his face was green.
I didnt mean to interrupt your lunch, he said. But I need money pretty bad, and I was wondering what you were going to do with your old car.
How do you like this one? inquired Tom. I bought it last week.
Its a nice yellow one, said Wilson, as he strained at the handle.
Like to buy it?
Big chance, Wilson smiled faintly. No, but I could make some money on the other.
What do you want money for, all of a sudden?
Ive been here too long. I want to get away. My wife and I want to go West.
Your wife does, exclaimed Tom, startled.
Shes been talking about it for ten years. He rested for a moment against the pump, shading his eyes. And now shes going whether she wants to or not. Im going to get her away.
The coupe flashed by us with a flurry of dust and the flash of a waving hand.
What do I owe you? demanded Tom harshly.
I just got wised up to something funny the last two days, remarked Wilson. Thats why I want to get away. Thats why I been bothering you about the car.
What do I owe you?
Dollar twenty.
The relentless beating heat was beginning to confuse me and I had a bad moment there before I realized that so far his suspicions hadnt alighted on Tom. He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick. I stared at him and then at Tom, who had made a parallel discovery less than an hour before and it occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well. Wilson was so sick that he looked guilty, unforgivably guilty as if he had just got some poor girl with child.
Dollar twenty.
The relentless beating heat was beginning to confuse me and I had a bad moment there before I realized that so far his suspicions hadnt alighted on Tom. He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick. I stared at him and then at Tom, who had made a parallel discovery less than an hour before and it occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well. Wilson was so sick that he looked guilty, unforgivably guilty as if he had just got some poor girl with child.
Ill let you have that car, said Tom. Ill send it over tomorrow afternoon.
That locality was always vaguely disquieting, even in the broad glare of afternoon, and now I turned my head as though I had been warned of something behind. Over the ash-heaps the giant eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg kept their vigil, but I perceived, after a moment, that other eyes were regarding us with peculiar intensity from less than twenty feet away.
In one of the windows over the garage the curtains had been moved aside a little, and Myrtle Wilson was peering down at the car. So engrossed was she that she had no consciousness of being observed, and one emotion after another crept into her face like objects into a slowly developing picture. Her expression was curiously familiar it was an expression I had often seen on womens faces, but on Myrtle Wilsons face it seemed purposeless and inexplicable until I realized that her eyes, wide with jealous terror, were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife.
* * *There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control. Instinct made him step on the accelerator with the double purpose of overtaking Daisy and leaving Wilson behind, and we sped along toward Astoria at fifty miles an hour, until, among the spidery girders of the elevated, we came in sight of the easygoing blue coupe.
Those big movies around Fiftieth Street are cool, suggested Jordan. I love New York on summer afternoons when everyones away. Theres something very sensuous about it overripe, as if all sorts of funny fruits were going to fall into your hands.
The word sensuous had the effect of further disquieting Tom, but before he could invent a protest the coupe came to a stop, and Daisy signaled us to draw up alongside.
Where are we going? she cried.
How about the movies?
Its so hot, she complained. You go. Well ride around and meet you after. With an effort her wit rose faintly, Well meet you on some corner. Ill be the man smoking two cigarettes.
We cant argue about it here, Tom said impatiently, as a truck gave out a cursing whistle behind us. You follow me to the south side of Central Park, in front of the Plaza.
Several times he turned his head and looked back for their car, and if the traffic delayed them he slowed up until they came into sight. I think he was afraid they would dart down a side street and out of his life forever.
But they didnt. And we all took the less explicable step of engaging the parlour of a suite in the Plaza Hotel.
The prolonged and tumultuous argument that ended by herding us into that room eludes me, though I have a sharp physical memory that, in the course of it, my underwear kept climbing like a damp snake around my legs and intermittent beads of sweat raced cool across my back. The notion originated with Daisys suggestion that we hire five bathrooms and take cold baths, and then assumed more tangible form as a place to have a mint julep[89]. Each of us said over and over that it was a crazy idea we all talked at once to a baffled clerk and thought, or pretended to think, that we were being very funny