4 BEN:
In my younger and
more vulnerable
years my father gave
me some advice that
I've been turning
over in my mind ever
since.
4 KRISTEN:
Robert Cohn was
once middleweight
boxing champion of
Princeton.
4 MIKE:
Through the fence,
between the curling
flower spaces, I
could see them
hitting.
4 BEN:
"Whenever you feel
like criticizing any
one," he told me,
"just remember that
all the people in
this world haven't
had the advantages
that you've had."
4 KRISTEN:
Do not think that I
am very much
impressed by that as
a boxing title, but
it meant a lot to
Cohn.
4 MIKE:
They were coming
toward where the
flag was and I went
along the fence.
4 BEN:
He didn't say any
more but we've
always been
unusually
communicative in a
reserved way and I
understood that he
meant a great deal
more than that.
4 KRISTEN:
He cared nothing
for boxing, in fact
he disliked it, but
he learned it
painfully and
thoroughly to
counteract the
feeling of
inferiority and
shyness he had felt
on being treated as
a Jew at Princeton.
4 MIKE:
Luster was hunting
in the grass by the
flower tree.
4 BEN:
In consequence I'm
inclined to reserve
all judgments, a
habit that has
opened up many
curious natures to
me and also made me
the victim of not a
few veteran bores.
4 KRISTEN:
There was a certain
inner comfort in
knowing he could
knock down anybody
who was snooty to
him, although, being
very shy and a
thoroughly nice boy,
he never fought
except in the gym.
4 MIKE:
They took the flag
out, and they were
hitting.
4 BEN:
The abnormal mind
is quick to detect
and attach itself to
this quality when it
appears in a normal
person, and so it
came about that in
college I was
unjustly accused of
being a politician,
because I was privy
to the secret griefs
of wild, unknown
men.
4 KRISTEN:
He was Spider
Kelly's star pupil.
4 MIKE:
Then they put the
flag back and they
went to the table,
and he hit and the
other hit.
4 BEN:
Most of the
confidences were
unsought -
frequently I have
feigned sleep,
preoccupation or a
hostile levity when
I realized by some
unmistakable sign
that an intimate
revelation was
quivering on the
horizon - for the
intimate revelations
of young men or at
least the terms in
which they express
them are usually
plagiaristic and
marred by obvious
suppressions.
4 KRISTEN:
Spider Kelly taught
all his young
gentlemen to box
like featherweights,
no matter whether
they weighed one
hundred and five or
two hundred and five
pounds.
4 MIKE:
Then they went on,
and I went along the
fence.
4 BEN:
Reserving judgments
is a matter of
infinite hope.
4 KRISTEN:
But it seemed to
fit Cohn.
4 MIKE:
Luster came away
from the flower tree
and we went along
the fence and they
stopped and we
stopped and I looked
through the fence
while Luster was
hunting in the
grass.
4 BEN:
I am still a little
afraid of missing
something if I
forget that, as my
father snobbishly
suggested and I
snobbishly repeat, a
sense of the
fundamental
decencies is
parcelled out
unequally at birth.
4 KRISTEN:
He was really very
fast.
4 MIKE:
"Here, caddie."
4 BEN:
And, after boasting
this way of my
tolerance, I come to
the admission that
it has a limit.
4 KRISTEN:
He was so good that
Spider promptly
overmatched him and
got his nose
permanently
flattened.
4 MIKE:
He hit.
4 BEN:
Conduct may be
founded on the hard
rock or the wet
marshes but after a
certain point I
don't care what it's
founded on.
4 KRISTEN:
This increased
Cohn's distaste for
boxing, but it gave
him a certain
satisfaction of some
strange sort, and it
certainly improved
his nose.
4 MIKE:
They went away
across the pasture.
4 MIKE:
"You follow me to
the south side of
Central Park, in
front of the Plaza."
4 TORY:
Don't get sore.
4 VIN:
"I dont ricklick
seeing you around
here before."
4 LINDSAY:
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.
4 KATE:
Don't get sore at
this stage of the
trip.
4 TORY:
Luster said.
4 N BEN:
I think he was
afraid they would
dart down a side
street and out of
his life forever.
4 TORY:
How did you ever
happen to know this
fellow, anyway?
4 MIKE:
"Well, what about
it."
4 KATE:
But they didn't.
4 LINDSAY:
Don't rub it in.
4 MIKE:
he said.
4 TORY:
And we all took the
less explicable step
of engaging the
parlor of a suite in
the Plaza Hotel.
4 KATE:
Didn't you send him
with a letter to me
in New York last
winter?
4 N BEN:
"Nothing."
4 TORY:
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.
4 VIN:
Thank God, I'm a
traveling man.
4 N BEN:
Luster said.
4 KRISTEN:
The notion
originated with
Daisy's suggestion
that we hire five
bathrooms and take
cold baths, and then
assumed more
tangible form as "a
place to have a mint
julep."
4 MIKE:
Haven't you got
some more Jewish
friends you could
bring along?
4 KATE:
"I going tonight."
4 TORY:
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... The
room was large and
stifling, and,
though it was
already four
o'clock, opening the
windows admitted
only a gust of hot
shrubbery from the
Park.
4 KATE:
------ --- ----
---- ---- ---------
4 TORY:
"You aint the one
can play a tune on
that saw, is you."
4 MIKE:
Daisy went to the
mirror and stood
with her back to us
fixing her hair.
4 N BEN:
--- ----
4 MIKE:
Luster said.
4 VIN:
"It's a swell
suite," whispered
Jordan respectfully
and everyone
laughed.
4 LINDSAY:
I've got some
darbs.
4 N BEN:
"It'll cost you a
quarter to find that
out."
4 VIN:
"Open another
window," commanded
Daisy, without
turning around.
4 KATE:
--- --- ---------
-- ---- ------ -----
4 N BEN:
he said.
4 LINDSAY:
"There aren't any
more."
4 N BEN:
The funny thing is
he's nice, too.
4 KATE:
"Why dont they lock
him up."
4 N BEN:
"Well, we'd better
telephone for an axe
-" "The thing to do
is to forget about
the heat," said Tom
impatiently.
@ LINDSAY:
the passengers on
waiting trains
@ LINDSAY:
the stud-book and
everything
@ LINDSAY:
a gray, scrawny
Italian child
@ LINDSAY:
a regal homecoming
glance
@ LINDSAY:
a party when
Damuddy's sick
@ LINDSAY:
the influence of
the dress
@ LINDSAY:
a chance to pull
out of it
@ LINDSAY:
a telegram in his
hand
@ LINDSAY:
the ravages of the
night
@ LINDSAY:
a few words in the
right key
@ LINDSAY:
the edge of a great
table
@ LINDSAY:
a nice durable
cardboard
@ LINDSAY:
the one going to
get
@ LINDSAY:
the Seventh
Infantry
@ LINDSAY:
the shore along the
Sound
@ LINDSAY:
a hell of a good
guy
@ LINDSAY:
the boom of a bass
drum
@ LINDSAY:
the size of your
smallest
@ LINDSAY:
a hell of a long
time
@ LINDSAY:
the bottle in her
hand
@ LINDSAY:
a damned fine
fiesta
@ LINDSAY:
a bottle of perfume
@ LINDSAY:
a remarkable place
@ LINDSAY:
the spread and the
blanket
@ LINDSAY:
the rain with the
top down
@ LINDSAY:
the corner of the
house
@ LINDSAY:
the end of Chapter
3
@ LINDSAY:
the middle of the
night
@ LINDSAY:
a good deal of
money
@ LINDSAY:
a bloody funeral
@ LINDSAY:
The picture of
Oxford
@ LINDSAY:
the commissioner
@ LINDSAY:
an interested way
@ LINDSAY:
an Oggsford man
@ LINDSAY:
the electric light
@ LINDSAY:
the Turgenieff
@ LINDSAY:
the Madrid papers
@ LINDSAY:
the matter, Daisy
@ LINDSAY:
A week after I
@ LINDSAY:
the Sheik of Araby
@ LINDSAY:
the first one he
found
@ LINDSAY:
a wonderful show
@ LINDSAY:
a quarter for it
@ LINDSAY:
the window at it
@ LINDSAY:
a dash of blue
paint
@ LINDSAY:
the increasing rain
@ LINDSAY:
an end in itself
@ LINDSAY:
the Romero boy
@ LINDSAY:
the whole front of
it
@ LINDSAY:
the rain from New
York
@ LINDSAY:
the bed in the dark
@ LINDSAY:
a perfect stranger
@ LINDSAY:
A little champagne?
@ LINDSAY:
"A five year old
child.
@ LINDSAY:
a bull-fighter
@ LINDSAY:
a small producer
@ LINDSAY:
The girl addressed
@ LINDSAY:
the afternoon
@ LINDSAY:
the white plum tree
@ LINDSAY:
a lot of them
@ LINDSAY:
the barrera
@ LINDSAY:
The fiesta
@ LINDSAY:
an awful time
@ LINDSAY:
the 17th
@ LINDSAY:
the new people
@ LINDSAY:
the conductor
@ LINDSAY:
the woods, et clean
@ LINDSAY:
the receiver
@ LINDSAY:
a cigarette
@ LINDSAY:
the child calmly
@ LINDSAY:
The oven door
@ LINDSAY:
the veranda
@ LINDSAY:
the hip so bad
@ LINDSAY:
the library
@ LINDSAY:
the western sky
@ LINDSAY:
a lot of things
@ LINDSAY:
a little wine
@ LINDSAY:
The suggestion
@ LINDSAY:
the Gran Via
@ LINDSAY:
the other one
@ LINDSAY:
a medium
@ LINDSAY:
An Oxford man
@ LINDSAY:
the three of us
@ LINDSAY:
the way she looked
@ LINDSAY:
the flower tree
@ LINDSAY:
the last two days
@ LINDSAY:
the book to him
@ LINDSAY:
a baffled clerk
@ LINDSAY:
a burst of jazz
@ LINDSAY:
the private car
@ LINDSAY:
the typewriter
@ LINDSAY:
the rattling leaves
@ LINDSAY:
a good uplift
@ LINDSAY:
a jimson weed
@ LINDSAY:
the sideboard
@ LINDSAY:
a bad type
@ LINDSAY:
a minute
@ LINDSAY:
the fire
@ LINDSAY:
the back door
@ LINDSAY:
the dancings
@ LINDSAY:
The trouble
@ LINDSAY:
the same name
@ LINDSAY:
the children's
@ LINDSAY:
the first time
@ LINDSAY:
the Napolitain
@ LINDSAY:
a new one
@ LINDSAY:
the business
@ LINDSAY:
the old street
@ LINDSAY:
the matter
@ LINDSAY:
the Select
@ LINDSAY:
A fat man
@ LINDSAY:
a fine town
@ LINDSAY:
the office
@ LINDSAY:
The God Damn
@ LINDSAY:
the letter
@ LINDSAY:
the Crillon
@ LINDSAY:
the garden
@ LINDSAY:
the woman
@ LINDSAY:
the garage
@ LINDSAY:
a little
@ LINDSAY:
a quarter
@ LINDSAY:
the darkness
@ LINDSAY:
a banjo
@ LINDSAY:
the morning
@ LINDSAY:
a "nice" girl
@ LINDSAY:
a nice girl
@ LINDSAY:
a divorce
@ LINDSAY:
the water
@ LINDSAY:
a long time
@ LINDSAY:
a kid then
@ LINDSAY:
the answers
@ LINDSAY:
a moment
@ LINDSAY:
a taxi
@ LINDSAY:
a sharp click
@ LINDSAY:
the races
@ LINDSAY:
the wire
@ LINDSAY:
a question
@ LINDSAY:
the house, noways
@ LINDSAY:
a moron
@ LINDSAY:
a fighter
@ LINDSAY:
a whisper
@ LINDSAY:
the chauffeur
@ LINDSAY:
the ground
@ LINDSAY:
the Dome
@ LINDSAY:
the cows
@ LINDSAY:
the hill
@ LINDSAY:
the pool
@ LINDSAY:
a book
@ LINDSAY:
the trough
@ LINDSAY:
The name
@ LINDSAY:
The friends
@ LINDSAY:
The glass
@ LINDSAY:
the shapes
@ LINDSAY:
the branch
@ LINDSAY:
a wart
@ LINDSAY:
The frog
@ LINDSAY:
the house
@ LINDSAY:
the walk
@ LINDSAY:
the desk
@ LINDSAY:
the steps
@ LINDSAY:
the chair
@ LINDSAY:
the post
@ LINDSAY:
a card
@ LINDSAY:
the end
@ LINDSAY:
a man
@ LINDSAY:
the bowl
@ LINDSAY:
a day
@ LINDSAY:
The steam
@ LINDSAY:
The spoon
@ LINDSAY:
a brick
@ LINDSAY:
a hog
@ LINDSAY:
the time
@ LINDSAY:
a drink
@ LINDSAY:
the cars
@ LINDSAY:
the Herseys'?
@ LINDSAY:
the tracks
@ LINDSAY:
the head
@ LINDSAY:
a while
@ LINDSAY:
the air
@ LINDSAY:
the back
@ LINDSAY:
a car
@ LINDSAY:
a fool
@ LINDSAY:
the truth
@ LINDSAY:
The count
@ LINDSAY:
the ice
@ LINDSAY:
the grapes
@ LINDSAY:
the train
@ LINDSAY:
the beach
@ LINDSAY:
the car
@ LINDSAY:
the wine
@ LINDSAY:
the sign
@ LINDSAY:
a year
@ LINDSAY:
the road
@ LINDSAY:
the war
@ LINDSAY:
the taste
@ LINDSAY:
the man
@ LINDSAY:
a lot
@ LINDSAY:
the sea
@ LINDSAY:
a name
@ LINDSAY:
an ass
@ LINDSAY:
the dirt
@ LINDSAY:
the East
@ LINDSAY:
the porch
@ LINDSAY:
the box
@ LINDSAY:
the band
@ LINDSAY:
a rose
@ LINDSAY:
The tree
@ LINDSAY:
a word
@ LINDSAY:
a thing
@ LINDSAY:
a girl
@ LINDSAY:
the door
@ LINDSAY:
the fight
@ LINDSAY:
a frown
@ LINDSAY:
a dog
@ LINDSAY:
a big
@ LINDSAY:
the bed
@ LINDSAY:
a bitch
@ LINDSAY:
a bit
@ LINDSAY:
the light
@ LINDSAY:
The room
4 KATE:
I like him.
4 N BEN:
he said.
4 KATE:
"You make it ten
times worse by
crabbing about it."
4 LINDSAY:
But he's just so
awful.
4 N BEN:
"What'd you bring
him out here for."
4 KATE:
He unrolled the
bottle of whiskey
from the towel and
put it on the table.
4 LINDSAY:
He can be damn
nice.
4 N BEN:
"You aint talking
to me."
4 LINDSAY:
"Why not let her
alone, old sport,"
remarked Gatsby.
4 N BEN:
I know it.
4 N BEN:
Luster said.
4 N BEN:
"You're the one
that wanted to come
to town."
4 N BEN:
That's the terrible
part.
4 N BEN:
"I cant do nothing
with him.
4 N BEN:
There was a moment
of silence.
4 N BEN:
Yes.
4 N BEN:
I just come over
here looking for a
quarter I lost so I
can go to the show
tonight.
4 N BEN:
The telephone book
slipped from its
nail and splashed to
the floor, whereupon
Jordan whispered
"Excuse me" - but
this time no one
laughed.
4 N BEN:
Go on and laugh.
4 N BEN:
Look like now I
aint going to get to
go."
4 N BEN:
"I'll pick it up,"
I offered.
4 N BEN:
You weren't out
with him last night
until two o'clock.
4 N BEN:
---- ---- --- --
----- -------- --
-----
4 BEN:
"I've got it."
4 VIN:
Was he very bad?
4 N MIKE:
Luster said.
4 VIN:
Gatsby examined the
parted string, mut -
tered "Hum!"
4 N MIKE:
Awful.
4 VIN:
"No." he said.
4 N MIKE:
in an interested
way, and tossed the
book on a chair.
4 BEN:
What's all this
about him and Brett,
anyway?
4 LINDSAY:
"I aint."
4 BEN:
"That's a great
expression of yours,
isn't it?"
4 LINDSAY:
Did she ever have
anything to do with
him?
4 N MIKE:
"I reckon I just
have to find that
other one, then."
4 KATE:
said Tom sharply.
4 BEN:
Sure.
4 LINDSAY:
Luster said.
4 VIN:
"What is?"
4 TORY:
She went down to
San Sebastian with
him.
4 N MIKE:
"You dont want to
buy no golf ball
neither, does you."
4 TORY:
"All this `old
sport' business.
4 LINDSAY:
What a damn-fool
thing to do.
4 BEN:
Luster said.
4 VIN:
Where'd you pick
that up?"
4 LINDSAY:
Why did she do
that?
4 BEN:
"What kind of
ball."
4 KATE:
"Now see here,
Tom," said Daisy,
turning around from
the mirror, "if
you're going to make
personal remarks I
won't stay here a
minute.
4 VIN:
She wanted to get
out of town and she
can't go anywhere
alone.
4 TORY:
he said.
4 VIN:
Call up and order
some ice for the
mint julep."
4 N MIKE:
She said she
thought it would be
good for him.
4 VIN:
"Golf ball."
4 TORY:
As Tom took up the
receiver the
compressed heat
exploded into sound
and we were
listening to the
portentous chords of
Mendelssohn's
Wedding March from
the ballroom below.
4 BEN:
What bloody-fool
things people do.
4 KRISTEN:
Luster said.
4 TORY:
"Imagine marrying
anybody in this
heat!"
4 BEN:
Why didn't she go
off with some of her
own people?
4 LINDSAY:
"I dont want but a
quarter."
4 VIN:
cried Jordan
dismally.
4 KRISTEN:
Or you?
4 LINDSAY:
"What for."
4 KRISTEN:
"Still - I was
married in the
middle of June,"
Daisy remembered,
"Louisville in June!
4 BEN:
- he slurred that
over - or me?
4 KATE:
-- -----
4 BEN:
Somebody fainted.
4 KRISTEN:
Why not me?
4 KATE:
"What do I want
with it."
4 KRISTEN:
Who was it fainted,
Tom?"
4 N MIKE:
It's an honest
face.
4 VIN:
"I didn't think you
did."
4 KRISTEN:
"Biloxi," he
answered shortly.
4 VIN:
It's a face any
woman would be safe
with.
4 KRISTEN:
Luster said.
4 TORY:
"A man named
Biloxi.
4 N MIKE:
She'd never seen
it.
4 LINDSAY:
"Come on here,
mulehead."
4 TORY:
` Blocks' Biloxi,
and he made boxes -
that's a fact - and
he was from Biloxi,
Tennessee."
4 KATE:
She should have.
4 TORY:
he said.
4 KRISTEN:
"They carried him
into my house,"
appended Jordan,
"because we lived
just two doors from
the church.
4 VIN:
All women should
see it.
4 N MIKE:
"Come on here and
watch them knocking
that ball.
4 TORY:
And he stayed three
weeks, until Daddy
told him he had to
get out.
4 LINDSAY:
It's a face that
ought to be thrown
on every screen in
the country.
4 N MIKE:
Here.
4 KRISTEN:
The day after he
left Daddy died."
4 TORY:
Every woman ought
to be given a copy
of this face as she
leaves the altar.
4 LINDSAY:
---- --------- ---
--- ---- ---- -----
---- ---- ------
------
4 VIN:
After a moment she
added as if she
might have sounded
irreverent, "There
wasn't any
connection."
4 LINDSAY:
Mothers should tell
their daughters
about this face.
4 TORY:
"Where'd you get
that."
4 BEN:
"I used to know a
Bill Biloxi from
Memphis," I
remarked.
4 VIN:
My son go west with
this face and grow
up with the country.
4 TORY:
he said.
4 KATE:
"That was his
cousin.
4 BEN:
My God!
4 N MIKE:
"Found it under
this here bush."
4 TORY:
I knew his whole
family history
before he left.
4 VIN:
Isn't it an awful
face?
4 LINDSAY:
Luster said.
4 TORY:
He gave me an
aluminum putter that
I use today."
4 KRISTEN:
And as for this
Robert Cohn, he
makes me sick, and
he can go to hell,
and I'm damn glad
he's staying here so
we won't have him
fishing with us.
END 4 BEN:
"I thought for a
minute it was that
quarter I lost."
END 4 LINDSAY:
The music had died
down as the ceremony
began and now a long
cheer floated in at
the window, followed
by intermittent
cries of "Yea - ea -
ea!"
END 4 BEN:
You're damn right.
END 4 LINDSAY:
"Hush."
END 4 BEN:
and finally by a
burst of jazz as the
dancing began.
END 4 LINDSAY:
We're going
trout-fishing.
END 4 BEN:
Luster said.
END 4 LINDSAY:
"We're getting
old," said Daisy.
END 4 BEN:
We're going
trout-fishing in the
Irati River, and
we're going to get
tight now at lunch
on the wine of the
country, and then
take a swell bus
ride.
END 4 LINDSAY:
"He going to give
it back when he done
looking at it."