Читать книгу The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald онлайн

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“Yes—” agreed Michael with an effort. “I suppose it was—hilariously amusing.”

“At first he liked you just the same. It didn’t occur to him that he was doing anything treacherous to you. He was just following a natural impulse—that was all. But after a few weeks he began to find you in the way. He wanted to take me to dinner without you along—and it couldn’t be done. Well, that sort of thing went on for over a year.”

“What happened then?”

“Nothing happened. That’s why he stopped coming to see us anymore.”

Michael rose slowly to his feet.

“Do you mean—”

“Wait a minute. If you’ll think a little you’ll see it was bound to turn out that way. When he saw that I was trying to let him down easily so that he’d be simply one of our oldest friends again, he broke away. He didn’t want to be one of our oldest friends—that time was over.”

“I see.”

“Well—” Marion stood up and began biting nervously at her lip, “that’s all. I thought this thing tonight would hurt you less if you understood the whole affair.”