Student Question
What is the story the young man tells Gortsby in "Dusk"?
Quick answer:
The young man tells Gortsby he came to the city with a hotel reservation, but the hotel had been replaced by a cinema. Directed to another hotel by a taxi driver, he forgot its name and location after stepping out to buy soap, leaving him lost for the night. He suggests Gortsby might find the story improbable, especially since he cannot produce the soap as proof, which further casts doubt on his tale.
Norman Gortsby sits on a park bench in the Park where he comes at dusk. After an older gentleman leaves, a young man plunks himself down, uttering an expletive.
"You don't seem in a very good temper," said Gortsby, judging that he was expected to take due notice of the demonstration.
The young man states that no one would be in a good mood if someone had experiences what he has.
"Yes?" said Gortsby dispassionately.
Feeling encouraged to relate what has happened to him, the young man
explains that he arrived in the city with reservations to a hotel in Bershire
Square. However, when he arrived in this square, there was no hotel. Instead,
there is a cinema constructed where the hotel has been. And, since he had no
where to go, the taxi driver suggested a hotel in another part of the city, so
he went there.
Once at...
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the new hotel, the young man wrote to his contacts and told them where he relocated. Then, he decided to step out for soap since he loathes hotel soap. And, while he was out, the young man wanted to have a drink in a bar, and to look at the shops. But, by the time he decided to return to the hotel, he realized that he had forgotten the name of the hotel, as well as on what street it is located.
So, now the young man is lost. While he can wire his contacts, his letter
will not arrive until tomorrow; so, for the time being, he has nowhere to stay
the night.
"I suppose you think I've spun you rather an impossible yarn," said the young man presently, with a suggestion of resentment in his voice.
Gortsby commiserates, saying that he once was lost, too. But, counters the
young man, he is not in a foreign country as Gortsby was, and if he were, he
could contact his embassy and not have to spent a night on the Embankment. He
concludes by saying to Gortsby, "I'm glad, anyhow, that you don't think the
story outrageously improbable."
Gortsby says that the tale has been good, except for the part about the soap
since he should be able to produce this item to verify what he says. Then, the
young man jambs his hands into his pockets, but he cannot find the soap. Upon
hearing these words, the young man jumps to his feet and searches his pockets.
"I must have dropped it," he concludes. Gortsby says to lose his hotel and then
his soap is to much to believe.
References