Читать книгу The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald онлайн

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Again Milly looked appealingly at Mrs. Horton.

“If it’s not too much trouble I’d rather stay with you,” she said. “I’ll help you all I can—”

It took another half hour to get rid of Mrs. Coots, but finally it was arranged that Milly was to stay at Mrs. Horton’s pension, until some trace of her husband was found. Later the same day they ascertained that the American Bureau of Military Graves had never heard of Jim Cooley—he had no job promised him in France.

However distressing her situation, Milly was young and she was in Paris in mid-June. She decided to enjoy herself. At Mr. Bill Driscoll’s invitation she went on an excursion to Versailles next day in his rubberneck wagon. She had never been on such a trip before. She sat among garment buyers from Sioux City and school teachers from California and honeymoon couples from Japan and was whirled through fifteen centuries of Paris, while Bill stood up in front with the megaphone pressed to his voluble and original mouth.

“Building on our left is the Louvre, ladies and gentlemen. Excursion number twenty-three leaving tomorrow at ten sharp takes you inside. Sufficient to remark now that it contains fifteen thousand works of art of every description. The oil used in its oil paintings would lubricate all the cars in the state of Oregon over a period of two years. The frames alone if placed end to end—”