Jordan's comment that "the pearls were around her neck" means that the lure of the $350,000 pearls and the life of wealth and luxury they represent were more than Daisy could resist, so she went ahead and married Tom Buchanan despite her love for Gatsby.
In Chapter Four, the narrator, Nick Carraway, describes the guests who arrive at Gatsby's lavish parties. The society that is portrayed is a fictional list of people much like the Vanderbilts, Morgans, Rockefellers, Duponts, and Astors—a corrupt society among whom everyone has a price.
This allusion to the power of money ties into Jordan's narrative about Daisy. One morning, Jordan walked by Daisy sitting in her white roadster beside a young lieutenant, also in white. Jordan says,
He was looking at her in the way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime.
His name was Jay Gatsby, and Jordan did not see him again until now. Now, of course, Gatsby returns to the scene purposefully.
Jordan relates to Nick that Daisy became engaged to Tom Buchanan after Gatsby returned to the war. Daisy received a letter from Gatsby the day before her wedding day. Having received a string of pearls worth $350,000, a very drunk Daisy fishes in her wastebasket for this necklace and tells Jordan when she enters her room to return the necklace for her
to whoever they belong to. Tell 'em all Daisy's change ' her mine. Say 'Daisy's change' her mine!
Jordan hurried to find Daisy's mother's maid, and they put Daisy into a cold bath. She took the letter with her, and only released it when it became so wet it fell to pieces. Jordan and the maid redressed Daisy, using spirits of ammonia and "ice on her forehead" to revive her. Thirty minutes later, "the pearls were around her neck and the incident was over." Daisy married Tom Buchanan the next day and began a three months' honeymoon to the South Seas.
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