Tom Buchanan rested his hand on my shoulder.
“What do you do, Nick?”
“I'm a bond man.”
“Who with?”
I told him.
“Never heard of them,” he remarked decisively.
This annoyed me.
“You will,” I answered shortly. “You will if you stay in the East.”
“Oh, I'll stay in the East, don't you worry,” he said, glancing at Daisy and then back at me.
At this point Miss Baker said “Absolutely!” It was the first word she uttered since I came into the room. It surprised her as much as it did me. She yawned and with a series of rapid, deft movements stood up into the room.
“You see,” Daisy told Miss Baker. “I've been trying to get you to New York all afternoon.”
I looked at Miss Baker, I enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender girl, with an erect carriage. Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me. It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before.
“You live in West Egg,” she remarked contemptuously. “I know somebody there.”
“I don't know a single —”
“You must know Gatsby.”
“Gatsby?” demanded Daisy. “What Gatsby?”
Before I could reply that he was my neighbour dinner was announced. Tom Buchanan took me from the room. We went out.
The two young women preceded us toward the sunset where four candles flickered on the table.
“Why candles?” objected Daisy, frowning. She snapped them out with her fingers. “In two weeks it'll be the longest day in the year.”
She looked at us all radiantly.
“Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it.”
“Let's plan something,” yawned Miss Baker, sitting down at the table.
“All right,” said Daisy. “What'll we plan?” She turned to me helplessly. “What do people plan?”
Before I could answer Daisy showed her little finger.
“Look!” she complained. “I hurt it.”
We all looked – the finger was black and blue.
“You did it, Tom,” she said. “I know you didn't mean to but you DID do it. Why did I marry such a man!”
She and Miss Baker accepted Tom and me, making only a polite pleasant effort to entertain or to be entertained.
“I feel uncivilized with you, Daisy,” I said.
“Civilization's going to pieces,” said Tom violently. “If we don't look out the white race will be submerged. It's all scientific stuff; it's been proved.”