This Side of Paradise F. Scott Fitzgerald (mini ebook reader .txt) đ
- Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
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At quarter to twelve Amory shook hands with her gravely, in the midst of a small crowd assembled to wish him good-speed. For an instant he lost his poise, and she felt a bit rattled when a satirical voice from a concealed wit cried:
âTake her outside, Amory!â As he took her hand he pressed it a little, and she returned the pressure as she had done to twenty hands that eveningâ âthat was all.
At two oâclock back at the Weatherbysâ Sally asked her if she and Amory had had a âtimeâ in the den. Isabelle turned to her quietly. In her eyes was the light of the idealist, the inviolate dreamer of Joan-like dreams.
âNo,â she answered. âI donât do that sort of thing any more; he asked me to, but I said no.â
As she crept in bed she wondered what heâd say in his special delivery tomorrow. He had such a good-looking mouthâ âwould she everâ â?
âFourteen angels were watching oâer them,â sang Sally sleepily from the next room.
âDamn!â muttered Isabelle, punching the pillow into a luxurious lump and exploring the cold sheets cautiously. âDamn!â
Carnival
Amory, by way of the Princetonian, had arrived. The minor snobs, finely balanced thermometers of success, warmed to him as the club elections grew nigh, and he and Tom were visited by groups of upper classmen who arrived awkwardly, balanced on the edge of the furniture and talked of all subjects except the one of absorbing interest. Amory was amused at the intent eyes upon him, and, in case the visitors represented some club in which he was not interested, took great pleasure in shocking them with unorthodox remarks.
âOh, let me seeâ ââ he said one night to a flabbergasted delegation, âwhat club do you represent?â
With visitors from Ivy and Cottage and Tiger Inn he played the ânice, unspoilt, ingenuous boyâ very much at ease and quite unaware of the object of the call.
When the fatal morning arrived, early in March, and the campus became a document in hysteria, he slid smoothly into Cottage with Alec Connage and watched his suddenly neurotic class with much wonder.
There were fickle groups that jumped from club to club; there were friends of two or three days who announced tearfully and wildly that they must join the same club, nothing should separate them; there were snarling disclosures of long-hidden grudges as the Suddenly Prominent remembered snubs of freshman year. Unknown men were elevated into importance when they received certain coveted bids; others who were considered âall setâ found that they had made unexpected enemies, felt themselves stranded and deserted, talked wildly of leaving college.
In his own crowd Amory saw men kept out for wearing green hats, for being âa damn tailorâs dummy,â for having âtoo much pull in heaven,â for getting drunk one night ânot like a gentleman, by God,â or for unfathomable secret reasons known to no one but the wielders of the black balls.
This orgy of sociability culminated in a gigantic party at the Nassau Inn, where punch was dispensed from immense bowls, and the whole downstairs became a delirious, circulating, shouting pattern of faces and voices.
âHi, Dibbyâ ââgratulations!â
âGooâ boy, Tom, you got a good bunch in Cap.â
âSay, Kerryâ ââ
âOh, Kerryâ âI hear you went Tiger with all the weightlifters!â
âWell, I didnât go Cottageâ âthe parlor-snakesâ delight.â
âThey say Overton fainted when he got his Ivy bidâ âDid he sign up the first day?â âoh, no. Tore over to Murray-Dodge on a bicycleâ âafraid it was a mistake.â
âHowâd you get into Capâ âyou old rouĂ©?â
âââGratulations!â
âââGratulations yourself. Hear you got a good crowd.â
When the bar closed, the party broke up into groups and streamed, singing, over the snow-clad campus, in a weird delusion that snobbishness and strain were over at last, and that they could do what they pleased for the next two years.
Long afterward Amory thought of sophomore spring as the happiest time of his life. His ideas were in tune with life as he found it; he wanted no more than to drift and dream and enjoy a dozen newfound friendships through the April afternoons.
Alec Connage came into his room one morning and woke him up into the sunshine and peculiar glory of Campbell Hall shining in the window.
âWake up, Original Sin, and scrape yourself together. Be in front of Renwickâs in half an hour. Somebodyâs got a car.â He took the bureau cover and carefully deposited it, with its load of small articles, upon the bed.
âWhereâd you get the car?â demanded Amory cynically.
âSacred trust, but donât be a critical goopher or you canât go!â
âI think Iâll sleep,â Amory said calmly, resettling himself and reaching beside the bed for a cigarette.
âSleep!â
âWhy not? Iâve got a class at eleven-thirty.â
âYou damned gloom! Of course, if you donât want to go to the coastâ ââ
With a bound Amory was out of bed, scattering the bureau coverâs burden on the floor. The coastâ ââ ⊠he hadnât seen it for years, since he and his mother were on their pilgrimage.
âWhoâs going?â he demanded as he wriggled into his B.V.D.s.
âOh, Dick Humbird and Kerry Holiday and Jesse Ferrenby andâ âoh about five or six. Speed it up, kid!â
In ten minutes Amory was devouring cornflakes in Renwickâs, and at nine-thirty they bowled happily out of town, headed for the sands of Deal Beach.
âYou see,â said Kerry, âthe car belongs down there. In fact, it was stolen from Asbury Park by persons unknown, who deserted it in Princeton and left for the West. Heartless Humbird here got permission from the city council to deliver it.â
âAnybody got any money?â suggested Ferrenby, turning around from the front seat.
There was an emphatic negative chorus.
âThat makes it interesting.â
âMoneyâ âwhatâs money? We can sell the car.â
âCharge him salvage or something.â
âHowâre we going to get food?â asked Amory.
âHonestly,â answered Kerry, eying him reprovingly, âdo you doubt Kerryâs ability for three short days? Some people have lived on nothing for years at a time. Read the Boy Scout Monthly.â
âThree days,â Amory mused, âand Iâve got
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