Chapter 4

 Previous story: Nick被瘦长挺拔、性情直爽的Baker小姐所吸引。他告诉Daisy芝加哥的人们都很想念她，哄得Daisy很高兴，而正当他们谈到Gatsby时，管家提醒晚餐已经准备好了。在餐桌上，Daisy和Tom有些拌嘴，不过Tom在谈到白人至上的种族主义时，两人的观点却是很一致。就在此时，电话铃响了，这究竟是谁打来的呢？

"I'll tell you a family secret," she whispered enthusiastically. "It's about the butler's nose. Do you want to hear about the butler's nose?"

"That's why I came over tonight."

"Well, he wasn't always a butler; he used to be the silver polisher (擦银器的仆人) for some people in New York that had a silver service for two hundred people.

He had to polish it from morning till night until finally it began to affect his nose——"

"Things went from bad to worse (情况越来越糟糕)," suggested Miss Baker.

"Yes. Things went from bad to worse until finally he had to give up his position."

For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face;

her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened—then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk.

The butler came back and murmured something close to Tom's ear whereupon Tom frowned, pushed back his chair and without a word went inside.

As if his absence quickened something within her Daisy leaned forward again, her voice glowing and singing.

"I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a—of a rose, an absolute rose. Doesn't he?" She turned to Miss Baker for confirmation. "An absolute rose?"

This was untrue. I am not even faintly like a rose.

She was only extemporizing but a stirring warmth flowed from her as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in (隐藏在)one of those breathless, thrilling words.

Then suddenly she threw her napkin on the table and excused herself and went into the house.

Miss Baker and I exchanged a short glance consciously devoid of meaning. I was about to speak when she sat up alertly and said "Sh!" in a warning voice.

A subdued impassioned murmur was audible in the room beyond and Miss Baker leaned forward, unashamed, trying to hear.

The murmur trembled on the verge of (在...的边缘，快要...了)coherence, sank down, mounted excitedly, and then ceased altogether.

"This Mr. Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbor——" I said.

"Don't talk. I want to hear what happens."

"Is something happening?" I inquired innocently.

"You mean to say you don't know?" said Miss Baker, honestly surprised. "I thought everybody knew."

"I don't."

"Why——" she said hesitantly, "Tom's got some woman in New York."

"Got some woman?" I repeated blankly.

Miss Baker nodded.

"She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner-time. Don't you think?"

Almost before I had grasped her meaning there was the flutter of a dress and the crunch of leather boots and Tom and Daisy were back at the table.

"It couldn't be helped!" cried Daisy with tense gaiety.

She sat down, glanced searchingly at Miss Baker and then at me and continued: "I looked outdoors for a minute and it's very romantic outdoors.

There's a bird on the lawn that I think must be a nightingale come over on the Cunard or White Star Line. He's singing away (不停地唱)——" her voice sang "——It's romantic, isn't it, Tom?"

"Very romantic," he said, and then miserably to me: "If it's light enough after dinner I want to take you down to the stables."

The telephone rang inside, startlingly, and as Daisy shook her head decisively at Tom the subject of the stables, in fact all subjects, vanished into air.

Among the broken fragments of the last five minutes at table I remember the candles being lit again, pointlessly, and I was conscious of wanting to look squarely at (正视)every one and yet to avoid all eyes.

I couldn't guess what Daisy and Tom were thinking but I doubt if even Miss Baker who seemed to have mastered a certain hardy skepticism was able utterly to put this fifth guest's shrill metallic urgency out of mind (将...置之度外).

To a certain temperament the situation might have seemed intriguing—my own instinct was to telephone immediately for the police.

The horses, needless to say, were not mentioned again.

Tom and Miss Baker, with several feet of twilight between them strolled back into the library, as if to a vigil (守夜) beside a perfectly tangible body, while trying to look pleasantly interested and a little deaf I followed Daisy around a chain of connecting verandas to the porch in front.

In its deep gloom we sat down side by side on a wicker settee (柳条编制的长靠椅).

Daisy took her face in her hands, as if feeling its lovely shape, and her eyes moved gradually out into the velvet dusk. I saw that turbulent emotions possessed her, so I asked what I thought would be some sedative questions about her little girl.

"We don't know each other very well, Nick," she said suddenly. "Even if we are cousins. You didn't come to my wedding."

"I wasn't back from the war."

"That's true." She hesitated. "Well, I've had a very bad time, Nick, and I'm pretty cynical about everything."

Evidently she had reason to be. I waited but she didn't say any more, and after a moment I returned rather feebly to the subject of her daughter.

"I suppose she talks, and—eats, and everything."

"Oh, yes." She looked at me absently. "Listen, Nick; let me tell you what I said when she was born. Would you like to hear?"

"Very much."

"It'll show you how I've gotten to feel about—things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where.

I woke up out of the ether (乙醚麻醉剂) with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl.

She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept.

'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."

"You see I think everything's terrible anyhow," she went on in a convinced way.

"Everybody thinks so—the most advanced people. And I know. I've been everywhere and seen everything and done everything."

Her eyes flashed around her in a defiant way, rather like Tom's, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. "Sophisticated—God, I'm sophisticated!"

The instant her voice broke off (中断), ceasing to (不再) compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said.

It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me.

I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.

（1125 words）

今日词组

1. from bad to worse情况越来越糟糕

2. give up one’s position放弃某人的职位

3. be concealed in隐藏在...之下

4. devoid of meaning缺少意义，没有涵义

5. on the verge of在...的边缘，快要...

6. sink down (此指声音)降低

7. grasp one’s meaning弄懂某人的意思

8. sing away不停地唱

9. break off中断

10. cease to停止，不再出现某种情况

11. vanish into消失在

12. look squarely at正视

13. put...out of mind将...置之脑后

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