[Music] the great gatsby by f scott fitzgerald chapter five when i came home to west egg that night i was afraid for a moment my house was on fire two o'clock and the whole corner of the peninsula was blazing with light which felt unreal on the shrubbery and made thin elongating glints upon the roadside wires turning a corner i saw that it was gatsby's house lit from tower to cellar at first i thought it was another party a wild route that had resolved itself into hide and go seek or sardines in the box with all the house thrown open to the game but there wasn't a sound only wind in the trees which blew the wires and made the lights go off and on again as if the house had winked into the darkness as my taxi groaned away i saw gatsby walking towards me across his lawn your place looks like the world's fair i said does it he turned his eyes towards it absently i've been glancing into some of the rooms let's go to coney island old sport in my car it's too late well suppose we take a plunge in the swimming pool i haven't made use of it all summer i've got to go to bed all right he waited looking at me with suppressed eagerness i talked with miss baker i said after a moment i'm going to call up daisy tomorrow and invite her over here to tea oh that's all right he said carelessly i don't want to put you to any trouble what day would suit you what day would suit you he corrected me quickly i don't want to put you to any trouble you see how about the day after tomorrow he considered for a moment then with reluctance i want to get the grass cut he said we both looked at the grass there was a sharp line where my ragged lawn ended and the darker well-kept expanse of his began i suspected that he meant my grass there's another little thing he said uncertainly and hesitated would you rather put it off for a few days i asked oh it isn't about that at least he fumbled with a series of beginnings why i i thought why look here all sport uh you you don't make much money do you not very much this seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently i thought you didn't if you'll pardon my you see i carry on a little business on the side uh sort of sideline you understand and i thought that if you didn't make very much you're selling bonds aren't your sport trying to well this would interest you it wouldn't take up much of your time and you might pick up a nice bit of money it just happens to be a rather confidential sort of thing i realize now that under different circumstances that conversation might have been one of the crises of my life but because the offer was obviously and tactlessly for a service to be rendered i had no choice except to cut him off there i've got my hands full i said i'm much obliged but i couldn't take on any more work you wouldn't have to do any business with walsheim evidently he thought that i was shying away from the connection mentioned at lunch but i assured him he was wrong he waited a moment longer hoping i'd begin a conversation but i was too absorbed to be responsive so he went unwillingly home the evening had made me lightheaded and happy i think i walked into a deep sleep as i entered my front door so i didn't know whether or not gatsby went to coney island or for how many hours he glanced into rooms while his house blazed godly on i called up daisy from the office next morning and invited her to come for tea don't bring tom i warned her what don't bring tom oh it's tom she asked innocently the day agreed upon was pouring with rain at 11 o'clock a man in a raincoat dragging a lawn mower tapped at my front door and said that mr gatsby had sent him over to cut my grass this reminded me that i had forgotten to tell my finn to come back so i drove to west egg village to search for her among soggy white-washed alleys and to buy some cups and lemons and flowers the flowers were unnecessary for at 2 o'clock a greenhouse arrived from gatsby's with the numeral receptacles to contain it an hour later the front door opened nervously and gatsby in a white flannel suit silver shirt and gold colored tie hurried in he was pale and there were dark signs of sleeplessness beneath his eyes is everything all right he asked immediately the grass looks fine if that's what you mean what grass he inquired blankly oh the grass in the yard he looked out the window at it but judging from his expression i don't believe he saw a thing looks very good he remarked vaguely one of the papers said they thought the rain would stop about four i think it was the journal have you got everything you need in the shape of uh of tea i took him into the pantry where he looked a little reproachfully at the fin together we scrutinized the 12 lemon cakes from the delicatessen shop well they do i asked of course of course they're fine and he added hollowly old sport the rain cooled about half past three to a damp mist through which occasional thin drops swam like jew gaspi looked with vacant eyes through a copy of clay's economics starting at the finish thread that shook the kitchen floor and peering towards the blurred windows from time to time as if a series of invisible but alarming happenings were taking place outside finally he got up and informed me in an inserting voice that he was going home why is that nobody coming to t it's too late he looked at his watch as if there was some pressing demand on his time elsewhere i can't wait all day don't be silly it's just two minutes to four he sat down miserably as if i had pushed him and simultaneously there was the sound of a motor turning into my lane we both jumped up and a little herald myself i went out into the yard under the dripping bear light like trees a large open car was coming up the drive it stopped daisy's face tipped sideways beneath a three-cornered lavender hat and looked out at me with a bright ecstatic smile is this absolutely where you live my dearest one the exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain i had to follow the sound of it for a moment up and down with my ear alone before any words came through a damp streak of hair lay a dash of blue paint across her cheeks and her hand was wet with glistening drops as i took it to help her from the car are you in love with me she said low in my ear or why did i have to come alone that's a secret of castle rack rant tell your chauffeur to go away and spend an hour come back in an hour ferdie then in a grave murmur his name is ferdi does the gasoline affect his nose i don't think so she said innocently why we went in to my overwhelming surprise the living room was deserted well that's funny i exclaimed what's funny she turned her head as there was a light dignified knocking at the front door i went out and opened it gatsby pale as death with his hands plunged like white in his coat pocket was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes with his hands still in his coat pockets he stalked by me into the hall turned sharply as if he were on a wire and disappeared into the living room it wasn't a bit funny aware of the loud beating of my own heart i pulled the door too against the increasing rain for half a minute there wasn't a sound then from the living room i heard a sort of choking murmur and part of a laugh followed by daisy's voice on a clear artificial note i certainly am awfully glad to see you again a pause it endured horribly i had nothing to do in the hall so i went into the room gatsby his hands still in his pockets was reclining against the mantlepiece in a strained counterfeit perfect ease even of boredom his head leaned back so far that it rested against the face of a defunct mantlepiece clock and from this position his distraught eyes stared down at daisy who was sitting frightened but gracefully on the edge of a stiff chair we've met before muttered gatsby his eyes glanced momentarily at me and his lips parted with an absorptive attempt to laugh luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers and set it back in place then he sat down rigidly his elbow on the arm of the sofa and his chin in his hand i'm sorry about the clock he said my own face had now assumed a deep tropical burn i couldn't muster up a single commonplace out of a thousand in my head it's an old clock i told them idiotically i think we all believed for a moment that it smashed in pieces on the floor we haven't met for many years said daisy her voice as a matter of fact as it could be five years next november the automatic quality of gatsby's answer set us all back at least another minute i had them both on their feet with the desperate suggestion that they helped me make tea in the kitchen when the demoniac finn brought it in on a tray amid the welcome confusion of cups and cakes a certain physical decency established itself gatsby got himself into a shadow and while daisy and i talked looked conscientiously from one to the other of us with tense unhappy eyes however as calmness wasn't an end in itself i made an excuse at the first possible moment and got to my feet where are you going demanded gatsby an immediate alarm i'll be back i've got to speak to you about something before you go he followed me wildly into the kitchen closed the door and whispered oh god in a miserable way what's the matter this is a terrible mistake he said shaking his head from side to side a terrible terrible mistake you're just embarrassed that's all and luckily i added daisy's embarrassed too she's embarrassed he repeated incredulously just as much as you are don't talk so loud you're acting like a little boy i broke out impatiently not only that but you're rude daisy's sitting in there all alone he raised his hand to stop my words looked at me with unforgettable reproach and opening the door cautiously went back into the other room i walked out the back way just as gatsby had when he made his nervous circuit around the house half an hour before and ran for a huge black knotted tree whose masked leaves made a fabric against the rain once more it was pouring and my irregular lawn well shaved by gatsby's gardener abounded in small muddy swamps and prehistoric marshes there was nothing to look at from under the tree except gatsby's enormous house so i stared at it like kant and his church steeple for half an hour a brewer had built it early in the period craze a decade before and there was a story that he'd agreed to pay five years taxes on all the neighboring cottages if the owners would have their roofs thatched with straw perhaps their refusal took the heart out of his plan to found a family he went into an immediate decline his children sold his house with the black wreath still on the door americans while occasionally willing to be serfs have always been obstinate about being peasantry after half an hour the sun shone again and the grossest automobile rounded gatsby's drive with the raw materials for his servant's dinner i felt sure he wouldn't eat a spoonful a maid a maid began opening the upper windows of his house appeared momentarily in each and leaning from a large central bay spat meditatively into the garden it was time i went back while the rain continued it seemed like the murmur of their voices rising and swelling a little now and then with the gusts of emotion but in the new silence i felt that silence had fallen within the house too i went in after making every possible noise in the kitchen short of pushing over the stove but i don't believe they heard a sound they were sitting at either end of the couch looking at each other as if some question had been asked or was in the air and every vestige of embarrassment was gone daisy's face was smeared with tears and when i came in she jumped up and began wiping at it with her handkerchief before a mirror but there was a change in gatsby that was simply confounding he literally glowed without a word or a gesture of exaltation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room oh hello old sport he said as if he hadn't seen me for years i thought for a moment he was going to shake hands it stopped raining has it when he realized what i was talking about that there were trinkle bells of sunshine in the room he smiled like a weatherman like an aesthetic patron of recurrent light and repeated the news to daisy what do you think of that it stopped raining i'm glad jay her throat full of aching grieving beauty told only of her unexpected joy i want you and daisy to come over to my house he said i'd like to show her around are you sure you want me to come absolutely old sport daisy went upstairs to wash her face too late i thought with the humiliation of my towels while gatsby and i waited on the lawn my house looks well doesn't it he demanded see how the whole front of it catches the light i agreed it was splendid yes his eyes went over it every arched door and square tower it took me just three years to earn the money that bought it i thought you inherited your money i did old sport he said automatically but i lost most of it in the big panic the panic of the war i think he hardly knew what he was saying when i asked him what business he was in he answered that's my affair before i realized that it wasn't the appropriate reply oh i've been in several things he corrected himself i was in the drug business and then i was in the oil business but i'm not in either one now he looked at me with more attention do you mean you've been thinking this over what i proposed the other night before i could answer daisy came out of the door and two rows of brass buttons on her dress gleamed in the sunlight that huge place there she cried pointing do you like it i love it but i don't see how you can live there all alone i keep it always full of interesting people night and day people who do interesting things celebrated people instead of taking the shortcut along the sound we went down the road and entered by the big poster with enchanting murmurs daisy admired this aspect or that of the feudal silhouette against the sky admired the gardens the sparkling odor of john keels and the frothy odor of hawthorns and plum blossoms and the pale gold odor of kiss me at the gate it was strange to reach the marble steps to find no stir of bright dresses in and out the door and hear no sound but bird voices in the trees and inside as we wandered through mariantornet music rooms and restoration salons i felt there were guests concealed behind every couch and table under orders to be breathlessly silent until we had passed through as gatsby closed the door on the merton college library i could have sworn i heard the allied man break into ghostly laughter we went upstairs through period bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender silk and vivid with new flowers through dressing rooms and pool rooms and bathrooms with sunken baths intruding into one chamber where a disheveled man in pajamas was doing liver exercises on the floor it was mr kip springer the border i'd seen him wondering hungrily about the beach that morning finally we came into gaspi's own apartment a bedroom and a bath and an atom study where we sat down and drank a glass of some chartreuse he took from a cupboard in the wall he hadn't once ceased looking at daisy and i think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes sometimes too he stood around at his possessions in a dazed way as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real once he nearly toppled down a flight of stairs his bedroom was the simplest room of all except where the dresser was garnished with the toilet set of pure dull gold daisy took the brush with delight and smoothed her hair whereupon gaspy sat down and shaded his eyes and began to laugh it's the funniest thing on sport he said hilariously i can't when i try to he had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third after his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence he had been full of the idea so long dreamed it right through to the end waited with his teeth set so to speak at an inconceivable pitch of intensity now in the reaction he was running down like an overwound clock recovering himself in a minute he opened for us two hulking patent cabinets which held his masked suits and dressing gowns and ties and his shirts piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high he took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them one by one before us shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many coloured disarray while we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaits in coral and apple green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of indian blue suddenly with a strange sound daisy bent her head into the shirt and began to cry stormi they're such beautiful shirts she sobbed her voice muffled in the thick folds it makes me sad because i've never seen such beautiful shirts before after the house we were to see the grounds and the swimming pool and the hydroplane and the mid-summer flowers but outside gatsby's window it began to rain again so we stood in a row looking at the corrugated surface of the sound if it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay said gatsby you always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock daisy put her arm through his abruptly but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever compared to the great distance that had separated him from daisy it had seemed very near to her almost touching her it seemed as close as a star to the moon now it was again a green light on the dark his count of enchanted objects had diminished by one i began to walk around the room examining various indefinite objects in half darkness a large photograph of an elderly man in yachting costume attracted me hung on the wall over his desk who's this that that's mr dan cody old sport the name sounded faintly familiar he's dead now he used to be my best friend years ago there was a small picture of gatsby also in yachting costume on the bureau gatsby with his head thrown back defiantly taken apparently when he was about 18 i adore it exclaimed daisy the pampa door you never told me you had a pompadour or a yacht look at this said gatsby quickly here's a lot of clippings about you they stood side by side examining it i was going to ask to see the rubies when the phone rang and gaspi took up the receiver yes well i i can't talk now i can't talk now old sport i said a small town you must know what a small town is well he's no use to us if detroit is his idea of a small town he rang off come here quick cried daisy at the window the rain was still falling but the darkness had parted in the west and there was a pink and golden billow of foamy clouds above the sea look at that she whispered and then after a moment i'd like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around i tried to go then but they wouldn't hear of it perhaps my present made them feel more satisfactorily alone i know what we'll do said gatsby we'll have kip splinger play the piano he went out of the room calling owing and returned in a few minutes accompanied by an embarrassed slightly worn young man with shell-roomed glasses and scanty blonde hair he was now decently clothed in a sports shirt open at the neck sneakers and duck trousers of a nebulous hue did we interrupt your exercises inquired daisy politely i was asleep cried mr kip springer in a spasm of embarrassment that is i been asleep then i got up clip springer plays the piano said gaspi cutting him off don't you erwing all sport i don't play well i i don't i hardly play at all i'm out of we'll go downstairs interrupted gatsby he flipped a switch the great windows disappeared as the house glowed full of light in the music room gaspi turned on a solitary lamp beside the piano he lit daisy's cigarette from a trembling match and sat down with her on the couch far across the room where there was no light save what the gleaming floor bounced in from the hall when clip springer had played the love nest he turned around on the bench and searched unhappily for gatsby in the gloom i'm all out of practice you see i told you i couldn't play i'm all out of prac don't talk so much old sport commanded gatsby play in the morning in the evening ain't we got fun outside the wind was loud and there was a faint flow of thunder along the sound all the lights were going on in west egg now the electric trains men carrying were plunging home through the rain from new york it was the hour of a profound human change and excitement was generating on the air one thing's for sure and the rich get richer and the poor get children in the meantime in the between time as i went over to say goodbye i saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into gaspy's face as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness almost five years there must have been moments even that afternoon when daisy tumbled short of his dreams not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion it had gone beyond her beyond everything he had thrown himself into it with a creative passion adding to it all the time decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way no amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart as i watched him he adjusted himself a little visibly his hand took hold of hers and as she said something low in his ear he turned towards her with a rush of emotion i think that voice held him most with its fluctuating feverish warmth because it couldn't be overdreamed that voice was a deathless song they had forgotten me but daisy glanced up and held out her hand gatsby didn't know me at all i looked once more at them and they looked back at me remotely pressed by intense life then i went out of the room and down the marble steps into the rain leaving them there together and that is my first chapter of this book that i have knocked out in one day um so thank you very much for listening um hopefully i'm getting better at this and it'll mean that i'll be able to release more than one chapter per week um if you enjoyed please like subscribe comment share all that jazz and i'll see you again next wednesday bye