But SCOTT, Didn't Your Algebra Teacher Tell You That L = M ?

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At one minute she had liked him tremendously—
ah, she had nearly loved him. 
In the next he had become
a thing of indifference to her,
an insolent and efficiently
humiliated man.

Anthony Patch had no great self-reproach—
some, of course, but there were other things
dominant in him now, far more urgent. 

He was not so much in love with Gloria
as mad for her. 

Unless he could have her near him again, 
kiss her, hold her close and acquiescent, 
he wanted nothing more from life. 
By her three minutes of utter 
 unwavering indifference  the  girl  had 
lifted  herself  from  a  high  but  somehow 
casual position in his mind,

to be instead his complete preoccupation.
However much his wild thoughts varied
between a passionate desire for her kisses
and an equally passionate craving to hurt
and mar her, the residue of his mind craved
in finer fashion to possess the triumphant soul 
that had shone through those three minutes. 
She was beautiful—but especially 
she was without mercy. 

He must own that strength 
that could send him away.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

With apologies from Oliverio
for re-formatting and
adding highlights to
an excerpt from
The Beautiful And Damned 

The next Fitzgerald page is  here. 

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