Summary—Chapter IX: The Face Without Pain or Fear
or Guilt
Francisco comes to Dagny’s apartment to try again to convince
her to quit, but she cannot give up the railroad. Suddenly, Rearden enters
the apartment. He sees Francisco and is furious. Francisco is stunned
to see that Dagny is sleeping with Rearden. Rearden remembers Francisco’s
oath of love to one woman and asks if Dagny is the one. When Francisco
says yes, Rearden slaps him. It takes all the self-restraint Francisco
can manage not to retaliate, and Rearden realizes how much this
man loves him. Francisco concedes that based on what he knows, Rearden
is still correct in denouncing him. He leaves the apartment.
Dagny receives a letter from Quentin Daniels, who is resigning. Although
he will still work on the motor, he will not accept her money, since
he does not want the motor to be used by the looters. Dagny calls
him and makes him promise to wait for her to come and see him. She
calls Eddie and tells him to hold the Comet for her. She will go
west to look into the tunnel accident and to find Daniels.
Eddie comes to Dagny’s apartment to get instructions while
she packs. When he sees Rearden’s dressing gown in her closet, he
is stunned to realize they are lovers and that he has also been
in love with Dagny for years. Later, he goes to eat dinner at the
Taggart Cafeteria with the worker. He tells him that he has always
liked his face because it looks like the face of a man who has never
known pain or fear or guilt. He tells him Dagny is going to find
Quentin Daniels and also tells him about the motor. When he mentions
his love for Dagny and his shock at learning about her and Rearden,
the worker hurries away.
Summary: Chapter X: The Sign of the Dollar
Dagny is shaken by the desolation she passes as she rides
west on the Comet. As she steps out of her private car, she sees
a conductor removing a hobo from the vestibule. Something in his
dignity strikes her, and she invites him in. His name is Jeff Allen,
and he used to work for the Twentieth Century Motor Company. He
tells her the story of what happened at the plant when Starnes’s
heirs began their disastrous policies. Every six months, the workers
would come together to vote on each person’s needs. If it was decided
that anyone was not producing enough, that man was made to work
extra unpaid hours. Eventually, all the workers lost their dignity.
The honest men were punished, and the rest learned to manipulate
the system and hide their abilities. The first man to quit was named
John Galt. He swore he would end the absurdity and stop the motor
of the world. After the factory closings and failures that followed, Allen
and his coworkers began to think he had succeeded, and they coined
the phrase Who is John Galt?
The train stops suddenly. Like many trains lately, it
has been deserted by its crew, who simply disappear. Dagny is relieved
to find Owen Kellogg on the train, but he is on his way to a month’s
vacation and will not help, though he does accompany her to a track phone
to call for help. On the way, he asks her why she continues to work
for the looters even now. He also smokes the mysterious cigarettes
stamped with the dollar sign. Dagny continues on to a nearby airstrip,
where she rents a plane. When she lands, she learns that Quentin
Daniels has just taken off in another plane. Fearing the destroyer
has taken him, she takes off and follows them. She crashes in the
remote Colorado mountains.
Analysis: Part Two, Chapters IX–X
The scene in Dagny’s apartment illustrates how much Francisco
has had to give up to follow his mission and how important it is
to him. Not only has he given up on d’Anconia Copper and allowed
his personal reputation to be destroyed, he has given up the only
woman he ever loved and betrayed Rearden, a man he loves and respects.
The strength required to stay on his course in the face of all he
has lost is illustrated in the moment after Rearden slaps him and
he does not retaliate, instead acknowledging that Rearden is right
to denounce him. Whatever he is accomplishing by withdrawing from
the looters’ world must be very important indeed.
