The Washington herald., 1922-09-01
The Beautiful
And Damned
By +. Scott Fitzgerald.



adorned themselves by that glass
or rustic lovers who paid no heed.
Youth has come into this
.oom In palest blue and left IL In
the gray cerements of despair. and
through long nights many girls
have lain awake where that bed
stands pouring out waves Of misery
into the darkness"
Gloria finally tumbled all her
clothes and unguents ingloriously
out of II, declaring that she had
come to live with Anthony, and
making the excuse that one of her
screens was rotten and admitted
bugs. 30 her room was abandoned
TO inssnsitive guests, and they
chamber. which Gloria considered
somehow good" as though An
thongs presence there had acted
as sxtsrminator of any uneasy
shadows of the past that might
have lowered about its walls.
The distinction between good"
and bad" ordered early and sum-
marily out of both their lives, had
been reinstated in another form.
Gloria insisted that anyone in
fvited to the gray house must be
good" which. In the case of n
girl, meant that she must be either
simple and reproachless or, II 9TH
srwise. must possess a certain sol-
idity and strength. Always in
tensely sceptical Of her sex, her judy
rents were now concerned with the
question of whether women were or
were not clean. BY uncleanIiness she
meant q variety Of things, a lack of
PRIDE, a slackness in fiber, and most
OF all, the unmistakable aura of
promiscuity.
women soil easily" she said,
FAR more easily than men. Unless
girls very young and brave it's
almost impossible for her to 20
down-hill without q certain hys-
tertcal animality, the cunning, dirty
sort of animality. A mans different
and 1 suppose that's why one of
the commonest characters of ro-
nance is a man going calamity to
the devil"
She was disposed to like many
men. preferably those who gave her
frank homage and unfailing enter
tainment-but often with a flash of
insight she told Anthony that some
one Of his friends was merely USING
him, and consequently had best be
left alone. Anthony customarily de
INJURED. insisting that the accused
was a good one" but he found
that his judgment was more fallibls
than hers, memorably when, as II
happened on several occasions, he
was left with a succession of res
taurant checks for which to render
solitary account.
More from their fear of solitude
than from any desire to go through
the fuss and bother Of entertaining,
they filled the house with guests
every weekend. and often or
through the week. The weekend
parties were much the same. When
the three or four men invited had
arrived, drinking was more or less
in order. followed by a hilariou.
dinner and a ride to the Cradle
Beach Country Club. which they
had Joined because IL was inexpen-
sive. lively IL not fashionable, and
almost a necessity for just such
occasions as these. Moreover, II
was Of no great moment what one
did there. and so long as the Patch
party were reasonably inaudible, II
AhdlNCA Gu WhCNncT OF HOL tHc
social dictators of Cradle Beach
saw the gay Gloria imbibing cock
tails IN the supper-room at frequent
intervals during the evening.
Saturday ended. generally, In a
glamourous confusion-it proving
often necessary to assist a muddled
guest to bed. Sunday brought the
p New York papers and q quiet morn
ing of recuperating on the porch
and Sunday afternoon meant good
bye to the one or two guests who
must return to the city, and q great
revival Of drinking among the one
or two who remained until next
day. concluding in q convivial II
not hilarious evening.
The faithful Tana. pedagogue by
nature and man of all work by pro-
fession. had returned with them.
Among their more frequent guests
a tradition had sprung up about
him. Maury Noble remarked one
afternoon that his real name was
Tannenbaum. and that he was a
German agent kept in this country
TO disseminate Teutonic propaganda
through westchester County, and.
after that, mysterious letters began
to arrive from Philadelphia ad-
dressed to the bewildered Oriental
as lit. Emile Tannenbaum," con-
tanning q few cryptic messages
signed General Staff," and adorned
with an atmospheric double column
OF facetious Japanese. Anthony al
ways handed them to Tana without
a smile: hours afterward the re-
cipient could be found puzziing over
them in the kitchen and declaring
earnestly that the perpendicular
symbols were not Japanese, nor
anything resembling Japanese.
Gloria had taken a strong dislike
TO the man ever since the day when,
returning unexpectedly from the
village. she had discovered him re-
clining on Anthouy's bed, puzzling
out a newspaper. 1t was the in
stinct Of all servants to be fond of
Anthony and to detest Gloria, and
Tana was no exception to the rule.
But he was thoroughly afraid of
hcr and made plain his aversion
only in his moodier moments by
srbtly addresses Anthony with re-
marks intended for her ear:
What Miz Pats wan dinner?" he
would say. looking at his master.
Or else he would comment about the
bitter selflshness of '"Merican peo-
pies" In such manner that there
was no doubt who were the "peo-
pies" referred to.
But they dared not dismiss him.
Such a step would have been alb
horrent to their inertia. They en-
aured Tana as they endured Ill
weather and sickness of the body
and the estimable VIII of God-as
H. andurah all thinHs even