- Augie attends city college and sells women's shoes.
- Both and he and Simon are doing okay financially, even though they no longer qualify for Charity.
- They hire a helper for their mother named Molly Simms.
- She doesn't show on New Year's Day, it turns out because she was with Simon.
- She's left scratches on him.
- Augie drops school and moved to Evanston, where he works now for a Mr. Renling at a sporting goods store.
- Mr. Renling and his wife front Augie the money for professional clothes he can wear.
- They also give him some horseback riding lessons that will help him in his section of the store.
- Mrs. Renling wants to make Augie perfect. She believes she can do this.
- Augie has a busy life, working, reading, and attending social events hosted by Mrs. Renling.
- She comes down hard on him for his hanging out with a girl named Willa Steiner.
- Mrs. Renling brings Augie along with her to Benton Harbor, where she takes mineral baths for her arthritis.
- She insists that he share meals with her and gossips to him about other people at the Harbor.
- While eating in public, Augie notices two young, beautiful girls and falls in love with the younger one, Esther Fenchel.
- Augie watches her and makes friendly with her uncle and aunt, hoping to work his way into her life.
- Mrs. Renling suspects he's got a crush on the older girl, Thea, and warns him that he'd better behave himself.
- Thea one morning asks Augie to play Tennis. He declines, not knowing how, instead going to the beach, where Thea says that Esther is.
- He's late for a card game with Mrs. Renling.
- Augie soon gets a change to speak to Esther. He asks her to dance. She says certainty not.
- He faints.
- Later, Augie has no appetite, and Mrs. Renling asks him when this love business will stop. She gives Thea, sitting at another table, a cold stare. Apparently Thea hasn't taken her eyes off Augie.
- In no mood for anyone's company but Esther's, Augie strolls outside and to a playground.
- He sits on a swing.
- Thea joins him and asks him how he's holding up after being rejected by her sister.
- She sits down, her thigh touching his ankle, and tells him that her sister believes he's servicing Mrs. Renling, sexually.
- Augie is shocked at this.
- Thea informs him that she's fine with his being with the older woman, but that her sister is a "deadhead" about the idea.
- Thea also tells him that while he's been following around Esther in a state of love, she's been doing the same thing to him. She loves him, she says.
- He rejects her suggestion that he switch his love to her.
- The next morning, he learns the Fenchels have checked out, but a note from Thea has been left for him.
- In it, she tells him that he was foolish for refusing her, that she loves him, and that he'll see her again.
- Simon comes to St. Joe with a girlfriend.
- He's powerfully in love and hope's that Augie is jealous, but his girlfriend, Cissy, isn't particularly kind to Augie or to Simon.
- Simon says they may be married in a few months.