Читать книгу The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald онлайн

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Then America entered the war and Diana on her eighteenth birthday sailed with a canteen unit to France.

The past was over; all was forgotten. Just before the armistice was signed, she was cited in orders for coolness under fire. And—this was the part that particularly pleased her mother—it was rumored that she was engaged to be married to Mr. Charley Abbot of Boston and Bar Harbor, “a young aviator of position and charm.”

But Mrs. Dickey was scarcely prepared for the changed Diana who landed in New York. Seated in the limousine bound for Greenwich, she turned to her daughter with astonishment in her eyes.

“Why, everybody’s proud of you, Diana,” she cried. “The house is simply bursting with flowers. Think of all you’ve seen and done, at nineteen!”

Diana’s face, under an incomparable saffron hat, stared out into Fifth Avenue, gay with banners for the returning divisions.

“The war’s over,” she said in a curious voice, as if it had just occurred to her this minute.

“Yes,” agreed her mother cheerfully, “and we won. I knew we would all the time.”