Читать книгу The Beautiful and Damned / Прекрасные и обреченные. Уровень 4 - Френсис Скотт Фицджеральд, Френсис Фицджеральд - Страница 15

From his undergraduate days Richard Caramel had desired to write.

“I’m absorbed, Aunt Catherine,” he told his aunt, “I really am. All my friends are joshing me – but I don’t care.”

“You’re an ancient soul, I always say.”

“Maybe I am. But where is my cousin Gloria? I think my friend Anthony Patch is in love with her.”

Mrs. Gilbert started,

“Really?”

“I think so,” said Dick gravely. “She’s the first girl I’ve ever seen him with.”

“Well,” said Mrs. Gilbert “Gloria is very secretive. Between you and me,” she bent forward, “between you and me, I’d like to see her settle down.”

“I’m not claiming I’m right,” Dick said. “But I think Anthony is interested. He talks about her constantly.”

“Gloria is a very young soul,” began Mrs. Gilbert eagerly, but her nephew interrupted with a hurried sentence:

“Gloria would be very young and silly not to marry him.” He stopped. “Gloria’s a wild one, Aunt Catherine. She’s uncontrollable.”

She knew; oh, yes, mothers see these things. But what could she do? At sixteen Gloria began going to dances at schools, and then came the colleges; and everywhere she went, boys, boys, boys. Sometimes the men were undergraduates, sometimes just out of college – they lasted on an average of several months each. Once or twice her mother had hoped she would be engaged, but always a new one came.