All the Sad Young MenFitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott)
General
All the Sad Young Men
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott)
American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
"Yes," he whispered into her lips. "There's all the time in the
world...."
All the time in the world--his life and hers. But for an instant as he
kissed her he knew that though he search through eternity he could never
recapture those lost April hours. He might press her close now till the
muscles knotted on his arms--she was something desirable and rare that
he had fought for and made his own--but never again an intangible
whisper in the dusk, or on the breeze of night....
Well, let it pass, he thought; April is over, April is over. There are
all kinds of love in the world, but never the same love twice.
GRETCHEN'S FORTY WINKS
The sidewalks were scratched with brittle leaves, and the bad little boy
next door froze his tongue to the iron mail-box. Snow before night,
sure. Autumn was over. This, of course, raised the coal question and the
Christmas question; but Roger Halsey, standing on his own front porch,
assured the dead suburban sky that he hadn't time for worrying about the
weather. Then he let himself hurriedly into the house, and shut the
subject out into the cold twilight.
The hall was dark, but from above he heard the voices of his wife and
the nursemaid and the baby in one of their interminable conversations,
which consisted chiefly of "Don't!" and "Look out, Maxy!" and "Oh, there
he _goes_!" punctuated by wild threats and vague bumpings and the
recurrent sound of small, venturing feet.
Roger turned on the hall-light and walked into the living-room and
turned on the red silk lamp. He put his bulging portfolio on the table,
and sitting down rested his intense young face in his hand for a few
minutes, shading his eyes carefully from the light. Then he lit a
cigarette, squashed it out, and going to the foot of the stairs called
for his wife.
"Gretchen!"
"Hello, dear." Her voice was full of laughter. "Come see baby."
He swore softly.
"I can't see baby now," he said aloud. "How long 'fore you'll be down?"
There was a mysterious pause, and then a succession of "Don'ts" and
"Look outs, Maxy" evidently meant to avert some threatened catastrophe.
"How long 'fore you'll be down?" repeated Roger, slightly irritated.
"Oh, I'll be right down."
"How soon?" he shouted.
He had trouble every day at this hour in adapting his voice from the
urgent key of the city to the proper casualness for a model home. But
to-night he was deliberately impatient. It almost disappointed him when
Gretchen came running down the stairs, three at a time, crying "What is
it?" in a rather surprised voice.
They kissed--lingered over it some moments. They had been married three
years, and they were much more in love than that implies. It was seldom
that they hated each other with that violent hate of which only young
couples are capable, for Roger was still actively sensitive to her
beauty.
"Come in here," he said abruptly. "I want to talk to you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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