Page 14 - The Great Gatsby

4 The Great Gatsby Dinner with the Buchanans 5

I had a view of thc water, a part view of my neighbor's lawn, sofa, on which two womcn wcrc lying. T h cy wcre both in long
and the comfortable fecling of living clase to millionaires - ali white dresses, which were rising and falling with che wind,
for eighty dollars a month. until Tom banged shut rhc windows.
Across the bay thc white palaces of East Egg shone along From her sofa Daisy turned to me and held my hand for a
rhe water, and the hisrory of the summer really begins on thc moment. She gave a pretty little laugh and looked up inco my
evening l drove ovcr there to have dinner with the Buchanans.
Daisy was a distant cousin of mine, and l'd known her
husband Tom in college; they had a vcry young daughtcr,
whom I'd never mct.
Tom had been one of the srrongest players in thc Yalc
foorball team. He was one of those men who reach such
limited excellence at rwenty-one that everything afterwards is
a littlc disappointing. His family were enormously wcalthy. He
and Daisy had spcnt a year in France for no particular reason,
and then moved here and there, unrestfully, wherever people
rode horses and were rich rogether.
And so ir happencd that on a warm windy cvening I drove
over to East Egg to see rwo old friends whom I didn't know at
ali well. Their housc was even larger than I cxpccted, a cheerful
red-and-white mansion overlooking the bay. T h e windows wcre
wide open to the sun and wind, and Tom Buchanan in riding
clothes was standing with his legs apart on the fronr porch.
He had changed since his years at Yale. Now he was a wcll­
built man of thirty, with a rather hard'mouth and a proud
manncr. Not even his beautifully made riding clothcs could
hide his body's cnormous power - you could see the muscles
moving under his chin coat. It was a cruel body, capable of
anything.
He greeted me and took me into a bright rosy-colored room.
A light wind blew through ic, blowing curtains in and out like
pale flags at the windows. In the center of the room was a largc Daisy turned to me and held my hand for a moment.