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Tender Is the Night - Book Three
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Chapter 10
At two o'clock that night the phone woke Nicole and she heard Dick answer it from what they called the restless bed, in the next room.
"Oui, oui … mais à qui est-ce-que je parle? … Oui … " His voice woke up with surprise. "But can I speak to one of the ladies, Sir the Officer? They are both ladies of the very highest prominence1, ladies of connections that might cause political complications of the most serious… . It is a fact, I swear to you… . Very well, you will see."
He got up and, as he absorbed the situation, his self-knowledge assured him that he would undertake to deal with it—the old fatal pleasingness, the old forceful charm, swept back with its cry of "Use me!" He would have to go fix this thing that he didn't care a damn about, because it had early become a habit to be loved, perhaps from the moment when he had realized that he was the last hope of a decaying clan2. On an almost parallel occasion, back in Dohmler's clinic on the Zürichsee, realizing this power, he had made his choice, chosen Ophelia, chosen the sweet poison and drunk it. Wanting above all to be brave and kind, he had wanted, even more than that, to be loved. So it had been. So it would ever be, he saw, simultaneously3 with the slow archaic4 tinkle5 from the phone box as he rang off.
There was a long pause. Nicole called, "What is it? Who is it?"
Dick had begun to dress even as he hung up the phone.
"It's the poste de police in Antibes—they're holding Mary North and that Sibley-Biers. It's something serious—the agent wouldn't tell me; he kept saying 'pas de mortes—pas d'automobiles' but he implied it was just about everything else."
"They've got to get out on bail7 to save their faces; and only some property owner in the Alpes Maritimes can give bail."
"They had their nerve."
"I don't mind. However I'll pick up Gausse at the hotel—"
Nicole stayed awake after he had departed wondering what offense8 they could have committed; then she slept. A little after three when Dick came in she sat up stark9 awake saying, "What?" as if to a character in her dream.
"It was an extraordinary story—" Dick said. He sat on the foot of her bed, telling her how he had roused old Gausse from an Alsatian coma10, told him to clean out his cash drawer, and driven with him to the police station.
Mary North and Lady Caroline, dressed in the costume of French sailors, lounged on a bench outside the two dingy12 cells. The latter had the outraged14 air of a Briton who momentarily expected the Mediterranean15 fleet to steam up to her assistance. Mary Minghetti was in a condition of panic and collapse—she literally16 flung herself at Dick's stomach as though that were the point of greatest association, imploring17 him to do something. Meanwhile the chief of police explained the matter to Gausse who listened to each word with reluctance18, divided between being properly appreciative19 of the officer's narrative20 gift and showing that, as the perfect servant, the story had no shocking effect on him. "It was merely a lark," said Lady Caroline with scorn. "We were pretending to be sailors on leave, and we picked up two silly girls. They got the wind up and made a rotten scene in a lodging21 house."
Dick nodded gravely, looking at the stone floor, like a priest in the confessional—he was torn between a tendency to ironic22 laughter and another tendency to order fifty stripes of the cat and a fortnight of bread and water. The lack, in Lady Caroline's face, of any sense of evil, except the evil wrought23 by cowardly Provençal girls and stupid police, confounded him; yet he had long concluded that certain classes of English people lived upon a concentrated essence of the anti-social that, in comparison, reduced the gorgings of New York to something like a child contracting indigestion from ice cream.
"I've got to get out before Hosain hears about this," Mary pleaded. "Dick, you can always arrange things—you always could. Tell 'em we'll go right home, tell 'em we'll pay anything."
"I shall not," said Lady Caroline disdainfully. "Not a shilling. But I shall jolly well find out what the Consulate24 in Cannes has to say about this."
"No, no!" insisted Mary. "We've got to get out to-night."
"I'll see what I can do," said Dick, and added, "but money will certainly have to change hands." Looking at them as though they were the innocents that he knew they were not, he shook his head: "Of all the crazy stunts25!"
Lady Caroline smiled complacently26.
At this point Dick went aside with Gausse and talked over the old man's findings. The affair was more serious than had been indicated—one of the girls whom they had picked up was of a respectable family. The family were furious, or pretended to be; a settlement would have to be made with them. The other one, a girl of the port, could be more easily dealt with. There were French statutes28 that would make conviction punishable by imprisonment29 or, at the very least, public expulsion from the country. In addition to the difficulties, there was a growing difference in tolerance30 between such townspeople as benefited by the foreign colony and the ones who were annoyed by the consequent rise of prices. Gausse, having summarized the situation, turned it over to Dick. Dick called the chief of police into conference.
"Now you know that the French government wants to encourage American touring—so much so that in Paris this summer there's an order that Americans can't be arrested except for the most serious offenses31."
"This is serious enough, my God."
"But look now—you have their Cartes d'Identité?"
"They had none. They had nothing—two hundred francs and some rings. Not even shoe-laces that they could have hung themselves with!"
Relieved that there had been no Cartes d'Identité Dick continued.
"The Italian Countess is still an American citizen. She is the grand-daughter—" he told a string of lies slowly and portentously32, "of John D. Rockefeller Mellon. You have heard of him?"
"Yes, oh heavens, yes. You mistake me for a nobody?"
"In addition she is the niece of Lord Henry Ford33 and so connected with the Renault and Citroën companies—" He thought he had better stop here. However the sincerity34 of his voice had begun to affect the officer, so he continued: "To arrest her is just as if you arrested a great royalty35 of England. It might mean—War!"
"But how about the Englishwoman?"
"I'm coming to that. She is affianced to the brother of the Prince of Wales—the Duke of Buckingham."
"Now we are prepared to give—" Dick calculated quickly, "one thousand francs to each of the girls—and an additional thousand to the father of the 'serious' one. Also two thousand in addition, for you to distribute as you think best—" he shrugged37 his shoulders, "—among the men who made the arrest, the lodging-house keeper and so forth38. I shall hand you the five thousand and expect you to do the negotiating immediately. Then they can be released on bail on some charge like disturbing the peace, and whatever fine there is will be paid before the magistrate39 tomorrow—by messenger."
Before the officer spoke40 Dick saw by his expression that it would be all right. The man said hesitantly, "I have made no entry because they have no Cartes d'Identité. I must see—give me the money."
An hour later Dick and M. Gausse dropped the women by the Majestic41 Hotel, where Lady Caroline's chauffeur42 slept in her landaulet.
"Remember," said Dick, "you owe Monsieur Gausse a hundred dollars a piece."
"All right," Mary agreed, "I'll give him a check to-morrow—and something more."
"Not I!" Startled, they all turned to Lady Caroline, who, now entirely43 recovered, was swollen44 with righteousness. "The whole thing was an outrage13. By no means did I authorize45 you to give a hundred dollars to those people."
Little Gausse stood beside the car, his eyes blazing suddenly.
"You won't pay me?"
"Of course she will," said Dick.
Suddenly the abuse that Gausse had once endured as a bus boy in London flamed up and he walked through the moonlight up to Lady Caroline.
He whipped a string of condemnatory46 words about her, and as she turned away with a frozen laugh, he took a step after her and swiftly planted his little foot in the most celebrated47 of targets. Lady Caroline, taken by surprise, flung up her hands like a person shot as her sailor-clad form sprawled48 forward on the sidewalk.
Dick's voice cut across her raging: "Mary, you quiet her down! or you'll both be in leg-irons in ten minutes!"
On the way back to the hotel old Gausse said not a word, until they passed the Juan-les-Pins Casino, still sobbing49 and coughing with jazz; then he sighed forth:
"I have never seen women like this sort of women. I have known many of the great courtesans of the world, and for them I have much respect often, but women like these women I have never seen before."
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1
prominence
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| n.突出；显著；杰出；重要 | |
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clan
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| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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archaic
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| adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的 | |
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tinkle
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| vi.叮当作响；n.叮当声 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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7
bail
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| v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人 | |
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8
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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coma
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| n.昏迷，昏迷状态 | |
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11
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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12
dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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13
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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14
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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15
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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17
imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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22
ironic
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| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
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23
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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24
consulate
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| n.领事馆 | |
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25
stunts
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| n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 ) | |
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complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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27
insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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28
statutes
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| 成文法( statute的名词复数 )； 法令； 法规； 章程 | |
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29
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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30
tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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31
offenses
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| n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势 | |
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32
portentously
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33
Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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34
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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35
royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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36
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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39
magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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40
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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41
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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42
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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43
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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44
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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45
authorize
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| v.授权，委任；批准，认可 | |
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46
condemnatory
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| adj. 非难的，处罚的 | |
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47
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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48
sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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49
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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