It was this night that he told me the strange story of his youth with Dan Cody—told it to me because ‘Jay Gatsby’ had broken up like glass against Tom’s hard malice and the long secret extravaganza was played out. I think that he would have acknowledged anything, now, without reserve, but he wanted to talk about Daisy.

She was the first ‘nice’ girl he had ever known. In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people but always with indiscernible barbed wire between. He found her excitingly desirable. He went to her house, at first with other officers from Camp Taylor, then alone.

It amazed him—he had never been in such a beautiful house before. But what gave it an air of breathless intensity was that Daisy lived there—it was as casual a thing to her as his tent out at camp was to him. There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year’s shining motor cars and of dances whose flowers were scarcely withered.

It excited him too that many men had already loved Daisy—it increased her value in his eyes. He felt their presence all about the house, pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotions.
But he knew that he was in Daisy’s house by a colossal accident. However glorious might be his future as Jay Gatsby, he was at present a penniless young man without a past, and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders. So he made the most of his time. He took what he could get, ravenously and unscrupulously— eventually he took Daisy one still October night, took her because he had no real right to touch her hand.

就是这天夜里，他把他跟丹·科迪度过的年轻时代的离奇故事告诉了我，因为“杰伊·盖茨比”已经像玻璃一样在汤姆的铁硬的恶意上碰得粉碎，那出漫长的秘密狂想剧也演完了。我想他这时什么都可以毫无保留地承认，但他只想谈黛西的事。她是他所认识的第一个“大家闺秀”。他以前以各种未透露的身份也曾和这一类人接触过，但每次总有一层无形的铁丝网隔在中间。他为她神魂颠倒。他到她家里去，起先和泰勒营的其他军官一起去，后来单独前往。她的家使他惊异——他从来没进过这样美丽的住宅。但是其所以有一种扣人心弦的强烈的情调却是因为她住在那里——这房子对于她就像他在军营里的帐篷对于他一样的平淡无奇。这房子充满了引人入胜的神秘气氛，仿佛暗示楼上有许多比其他卧室都美丽而凉爽的卧室，走廊里到处都是赏心乐事，还有许多风流艳史——不是霉烘烘、用熏香草保存起来的，而是活生生的，使人联想到今年的雪亮的汽车，联想到鲜花还没凋谢的舞会。很多男人曾经爱过黛西，这也使他激动——这在他眼中增高了她的身价。他感到她家里到处都有他们的存在；空气中弥漫着仍然颤动的感情的阴影和回声。但是，他明白他之所以能出入黛西家里纯粹是出于偶然。不管他作为杰伊·盖茨比会有何等的锦绣前程，目前他只是一个默默无闻、一文不名的青年人，而且他的军服——这件看不见的外衣随时都可能从他肩上滑落下来。因此他尽量利用他的时间。他占有了他所能得到的东西，狼吞虎咽，肆无忌惮——终于在一个静寂的十月的夜晚他占有了黛西，占有了她，正因为他并没有真正的权利去摸她的手。