| "I couldn't forgive him or like him but I saw that
what he had done was, to him, entirely
justified. It was all very
careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -
they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their
money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them
together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made....
I shook hands with him; it seemed silly not to, for I felt suddenly
as though I were talking to a child. Then he went into the jewelry store
to but a pearl necklace - or
perhaps only a pair of cuff buttons
- rid of my provincial squeamishness forever." |
