Читать книгу The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald онлайн

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With an exclamation he jumped off the wall.

“I’m going to the city,” he said.

“Am I—such bad company as all that?”

“Diana.” He came close to her and put his arms around her knees and looked into her eyes. “You know that if I kiss you I’ll have to stay. I’m afraid of you—afraid of your kindness, afraid to remember anything about you at all. And I couldn’t go from a kiss of yours to—another girl.”

“Good-bye,” she said suddenly.

He hesitated for a moment; then he protested helplessly.

“You put me in a terrible position.”

“Good-bye.”

“Listen Diana——”

“Please go away.”

He turned and walked quickly toward the house.

Diana sat without moving while the night breeze made cool puffs and ruffles on her chiffon dress. The moon had risen higher now, and floating in the Sound was a triangle of silver scales, trembling a little to the stiff, tinny drip of the banjos on the lawn.

Alone at last—she was alone at last. There was not even a ghost left now to drift with through the years. She might stretch out her arms as far as they could reach into the night without fear that they would brush friendly cloth. The thin silver had worn off from all the stars.