I wondered if this partnership had included the World’s Series transaction in 1919.

‘Now he’s dead,’ I said after a moment. ‘You were his closest friend, so I know you’ll want to come to his funeral this afternoon.’

‘I’d like to come.’

‘Well, come then.’

The hair in his nostrils quivered slightly, and as he shook his head his eyes filled with tears.

‘I can’t do it – I can’t get mixed up in it,’ he said.

‘There’s nothing to get mixed up in. It’s all over now.’

‘When a man gets killed I never like to get mixed up in it in any way. I keep out. When I was a young man it was different – if a friend of mine died, no matter how, I stuck with them to the end. You may think that’s sentimental, but I mean it – to the bitter end.’

I saw that for some reason of his own he was determined not to come, so I stood up.

‘Are you a college man?’ he inquired suddenly.

For a moment I thought he was going to suggest a ‘gonnegtion’, but he only nodded and shook my hand.

‘Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead,’ he suggested. ‘After that my own rule is to let everything alone.’

When I left his office the sky had turned dark and I got back to West Egg in a drizzle. After changing my clothes I went next door and found Mr. Gatz walking up and down excitedly in the hall. His pride in his son and in his son’s possessions was continually increasing and now he had something to show me.

‘Jimmy sent me this picture.’ He took out his wallet with trembling fingers. ‘Look there.’

It was a photograph of the house, cracked in the corners and dirty with many hands. He pointed out every detail to me eagerly. ‘Look there!’ and then sought admiration from my eyes. He had shown it so often that I think it was more real to him now than the house itself.

‘Jimmy sent it to me. I think it’s a very pretty picture. It shows up well.’

‘Very well. Had you seen him lately?’

‘He come out to see me two years ago and bought me the house I live in now. Of course we was broke up when he run off from home, but I see now there was a reason for it. He knew he had a big future in front of him. And ever since he made a success he was very generous with me.’

He seemed reluctant to put away the picture, held it for another minute, lingeringly, before my eyes. Then he returned the wallet and pulled from his pocket a ragged old copy of a book called Hopalong Cassidy [99] .

‘Look here, this is a book he had when he was a boy. It just shows you.’

He opened it at the back cover and turned it around for me to see. On the last fly-leaf was printed the word SCHEDULE, and the date September 12, 1906. And underneath:

Rise from bed 6.00 A.M.

Dumbbell exercise and wall-scaling6.15 – 6.30 “

Study electricity, etc7.15 – 8.15 “

Work8.30 – 4.30 P.M.

Baseball and sports4.30 – 5.00 P.M.

Practice elocution, poise and

how to attain it5.00 – 6.00 “

Study needed inventions. 7.00 – 9.00

GENERAL RESOLVES

No wasting time at Shafters or [a name, indecipherable]

No more smoking or chewing.

Bath every other day

Read one improving book or magazine per week

Save $5.00 [crossed out] $3.00 per week

Be better to parents

‘I come across this book by accident,’ said the old man. ‘It just shows you, don’t it?’

‘It just shows you.’

‘Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he’s got about improving his mind? He was always great for that. He told me I et like a hog once, and I beat him for it.’

He was reluctant to close the book, reading each item aloud and then looking eagerly at me. I think he rather expected me to copy down the list for my own use.

A little before three the Lutheran minister arrived from Flushing, and I began to look involuntarily out the windows for other cars. So did Gatsby’s father. And as the time passed and the servants came in and stood waiting in the hall, his eyes began to blink anxiously, and he spoke of the rain in a worried, uncertain way. The minister glanced several times at his watch, so I took him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasn’t any use. Nobody came.