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The Great Gatsby — Chapter 5 — Page 11

With enchanting murmurs Daisy admired this aspect or that of the feudal silhouette against the sky, admired the gardens, the sparkling odour of jonquils and the frothy odour of hawthorn and plum blossoms and the pale gold odour of kiss-me-at-the-gate. It was strange to reach the marble steps and find no stir of bright dresses in and out the door, and hear no sound but bird voices in the trees. And inside, as we wandered through Marie Antoinette music-rooms and Restoration Salons, I felt that there were guests concealed behind every couch and table, under orders to be breathlessly silent until we had passed through. As Gatsby closed the door of the Merton College Library I could have sworn I heard the owl-eyed man break into ghostly laughter. We went upstairs, through period bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender silk and vivid with new flowers, through dressing-rooms and poolrooms, and bathrooms with sunken bathsintruding into one chamber where a dishevelled man in pyjamas was doing liver exercises on the floor. It was Mr. Klipspringer, the boarder. I had seen him wandering hungrily about the beach that morning. Finally we came to Gatsbys own apartment, a bedroom and a bath, and an Adams study, where we sat down and drank a glass of some Chartreuse he took from a cupboard in the wall. He hadnt once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes.