- Bradley begins the second part of his narrative by confirming something that you've probably already figured out: he's in love with Julian.
- Bradley lies on his sitting room floor for hours, entering into the kind of transcendent state that religious devotees are said to experience during moments of rapturous connection with the divine.
- As he muses on his feelings, Bradley makes at least one firm decision—he's never going to tell Julian, or anyone else, about his feelings. He'll simply be content to love her in gratitude and silence for the rest of his mortal life.
- Bradley eventually picks himself up off of the floor and goes to bed, where he has a great night's sleep.
- The next morning, Bradley wakes up full of happiness and joy, as though the world itself were fresh and new.
- As Bradley gets ready to go about his day, he spends some time looking through and caressing Julian's copy of Hamlet, which she left behind on the previous morning.
- When the telephone rings and Bradley hears his friend Hartbourne on the other end, he schedules a lunch date with the old fellow right away.
- Almost as soon as Bradley puts the phone down, the doorbell rings.
- When Bradley opens the door, he finds Rachel standing outside.
- Bradley won't let Rachel into the apartment—he doesn't want to sully the purified air of Julian's former presence by letting Rachel muddy it up, so he goes outside and convinces Rachel to come along with him while he does some shopping.
- Bradley heads downtown and soon goes into a stationary shop, where he buys Rachel an armful of little gifts.
- Next, Bradley and Rachel head to a nearby pub, where they sit and have a drink.
- Bradley's newfound love for Julian has put him in a wonderful mood, and as Rachel explains that she wants to take him up on his offer to become very close personal friends, Bradley compliments her effusively and swears his eternal friendship and undying devotion.
- Eventually, Bradley leaves Rachel in the pub and heads off to meet Hartbourne for lunch.
- After having lunch with Hartbourne, Bradley decides to go to Notting Hill to visit Christian and Priscilla, but he swings by his own apartment first.
- On the way there, Bradley stops into a bookstore and orders every book that Arnold Baffin has ever written, intending to read them all anew and evaluate them with fresher, kinder, and more loving eyes.
- When Bradley reaches his apartment, he finds Priscilla's husband, Roger, waiting there for him.
- Still in a wonderful mood, Bradley insists that Roger go and collect Marigold from the nearby café, where she's waiting for him, and when the two of them return, Bradley invites them in for tea.
- Roger and Marigold have brought most of the things that Priscilla wanted from the house, and Bradley is just as friendly and effusive to them as he was to Rachel a few hours before.
- As Roger and Marigold leave, Roger remarks that he's sure that Bradley must be drunk.
- Bradley returns to the sitting room and enjoys another round of lying facedown on the floor.
- That evening, Bradley goes to Christian's house in Notting Hill to visit Priscilla and bring her the things that Roger and Marigold have returned.
- Priscilla isn't exactly happy with the swag, and she tells Bradley that she's decided to go back to Roger after all.
- After Priscilla makes this announcement, Bradley is forced to tell her that Roger isn't going to take her back—that he's had a mistress for years, that he loves said mistress, that said mistress is pregnant, and that the two of them are going to get married as soon as Roger and Priscilla can finalize their divorce.
- Not surprisingly, Priscilla is shattered by the news.
- When Christian pokes her head in and hears that Bradley has told Priscilla about Roger and Marigold, Priscilla starts to scream.
- Francis Marloe comes in to see what's up, and Christian ushers Bradley out of the room.
- Soon, Christian comes downstairs and tells Bradley that she slapped Priscilla to get her to stop crying.
- Christian gives Bradley a bit of food and some brandy, and the two of them start to have the most cordial conversation they've had in years.
- Bradley is still flying high on his love for Julian, and he barely registers the fact that Christian is talking as though the two of them are going to get back together.
- When Christian asks Bradley to kiss her, he's so caught up in his thoughts of Julian that he takes her into his arms, laughing happily, without quite knowing what's going on.
- Christian and Bradley are still laughing and holding each other when Arnold comes into the room, and as Christian tells Arnold that she's just proposed to Bradley, Bradley tells Arnold that he's just ordered all of his books.
- Bradley soon makes his exit, and as he walks away he hears someone coming towards him on the street. He looks behind him and sees Francis, who asks him for a bit of money.
- Still feeling happy and generous, Bradley complies.
- When he wakes up the next morning, Bradley isn't feeling quite as over the moon as he was the day before.
- Instead of feeling a boundless sense of generosity and joy, Bradley feels that he needs to do something Julian-related.
- Not quite sure what to do with himself, Bradley sits quietly and thinks. He fields a number of short telephone calls, and then, just as he's trying to decide whether or not to call Rachel, the phone rings again, and Rachel herself is on the line.
- Rachel sounds a little bit glum and passive-aggressive on the phone, and she lets Bradley know that she doesn't intend to visit him that morning.
- After hanging up, Bradley forgets about Rachel immediately, and he decides to go out and buy Julian a number of gifts.
- After he returns from his shopping spree, Bradley gets a phone call from Christian, who wants to come over. Bradley has already forgotten all about her little "proposal" of the night before, and he lies and tells her that he has other plans.
- Bradley begins to feel increasingly anxious as he waits to see whether Julian will call him and ask if she can come by to retrieve her copy of Hamlet.
- When the phone finally rings again, Bradley's dismayed to discover that it's Arnold on the other end, not Julian.
- Arnold asks Bradley if he's planning to go and visit Priscilla that evening. He asks if the two of them could meet up afterwards to have a little chat.
- Bradley agrees, then returns to the sitting room to wait for Julian's call (which he feels sure will come).
- Eventually, Julian does call, and she asks when she can come by to pick up her copy of Hamlet. She tells Bradley that any time over the next couple of weeks will be fine, and Bradley suggests that she stop by at some point the following week.
- Then, before hanging up, Bradley suddenly changes his mind, and he asks Julian what she's got going on for the evening.
- Bradley and Julian are eating together in a restaurant at the top of London's Post Office Tower. As they eat, Bradley is contemplating his love for the young woman.
- Julian tries to engage Bradley in conversation about Shakespeare and Wittgenstein, but Bradley isn't paying attention—instead, he's trying to decide whether or not he can get away with kissing her at the end of the evening.
- After supper, as Bradley and Julian are standing out on the street and getting ready to part ways, Bradley decides to go for it. He leans in and gives Julian a kiss on the cheek.
- Afterwards, Julian asks Bradley if he'd like to go to Covent Garden with her the following Wednesday evening to see an opera.
- Julian explains that her new boyfriend bought a pair of tickets for the show, but now his plans have changed, and he can't come.
- As Julian walks away, Bradley stands alone on the street, feeling as though he's just been taken prisoner by a squad of secret police.
- After Julian's revelation about her new boyfriend, the aptly named Septimus Leech, Bradley wakes up the next morning in a far less wonderful mood. In fact, he describes himself as being "in torment" (2.6.1).
- Bradley devotes considerable time to describing his tormented feelings as he tries to get up and go about his day.
- Around mid-morning, Francis Marloe arrives to ask why Bradley didn't come to Christian's to visit Priscilla the night before, as he had said he would.
- Francis also tells Bradley that Christian is pushing for Priscilla to get electric shock treatment, and he wants to know what Bradley thinks about it.
- For his part, Bradley replies to Francis's questions so obscurely and evasively that Francis soon asks him if he's sick.
- Bradley tells Francis that he is sick, actually—lovesick, that is.
- Despite having taken a solemn vow of secrecy just two days before, Bradley soon confesses his feelings to Francis, who tells him to do one of two things: either get over it or be honest with Julian.
- As far as Francis is concerned, there's no reason to think that Julian would be bothered by the news, but Bradley is appalled by Francis's nonchalance.
- Francis leaves once he sees how upset Bradley is becoming; once he's gone, Bradley sits and ponders his words.
- The next section begins with a letter to Bradley from Arnold Baffin—one in which Arnold confesses that he's fallen in love with Christian and asks Bradley for his help comforting Rachel during the grief she'll feel when she learns the truth. Oh, and BTW, would Bradley mind being the one to tell her?
- After reading the letter, Bradley decides that he can't go to visit Priscilla anytime soon, since Arnold will be hanging around Christian's house waiting to talk to him.
- Since he doesn't intend to visit his sister, Bradley heads over to a flower shop and arranges to have them send her flowers every day for the time being.
- Bradley lives in a daze over the next few days as he waits for Wednesday—the date when he and Julian will go to Covent Garden together.
- Finally, Wednesday evening arrives, and Bradley and Julian go to the opera.
- As they sit together waiting for the show to start, Bradley positions himself so that his foot is touching Julian's, and this minor contact thrills him.
- When Julian starts to explain the plot of the opera that they're about to see, Bradley is horrified to hear that it parallels his own circumstances a little too closely.
- The two are seeing Der Rosenkavalier—an opera about a dude who's about twenty years old and dating a woman who's "quite old"—"about thirty," to be exact (2.8.17).
- Needless to say, Bradley isn't thrilled to hear that Julian thinks of thirty years old as being practically Jurassic.
- Soon after the music starts, Bradley feels that he's going to be sick, and he leaves the theater so that he can go outside and find somewhere to vomit. He does, and as he's pulling himself back together, he senses that Julian has appeared behind him.
- When Julian asks him what's up, Bradley confesses that he's in love with her.
- Julian tells him that she thought that might be the case—that little kiss after supper the week before wasn't exactly subtle—and as Bradley tries to make a quick exit, she asks him to stay and talk to her.
- Throughout the conversation that follows, Bradley is quite mean to Julian, calling her a little girl and brushing aside her attempts to talk seriously about the confession he's just made. He accuses her of playing games with him, and he also insinuates that she must be enjoying his torment.
- As Julian continues to plead with Bradley and beg him to talk to her, Bradley continues to put her off. The two of them are soon walking along the street, with Julian doing her best to prevent Bradley from simply running away.
- When Julian asks at one point how old Bradley is, he chops off a dozen years and tells her that he's forty-six.
- As the two pass by a little church, Bradley gives in to Julian's requests to stop somewhere where they can sit and talk. He leads them into the church garden, where they sit together on a bench.
- After berating Julian some more, Bradley eventually pulls her to him and kisses her. It takes him a moment to realize that she's actually kissing him back.
- When they pull away, Julian tells Bradley that she loves him—that she's always loved him, ever since she was a little girl.
- Julian's confession doesn't do much to convince Bradley—whereas at first he thought she was playing with him, now he thinks that she's young and silly and confused.
- The two start walking again, and Bradley takes Julian to an underground station before they part ways.
- Bradley insists that Julian is going to wake up and regret her words tomorrow, but Julian tells Bradley that she won't—and, in fact, that she's going to come to his apartment in the morning, full of the same feelings that she's expressing now.
- Bradley kisses Julian quickly before leaving, then heads home alone.
- The next morning, Bradley can't understand why time is passing so slowly.
- Finally, at the end of an eternity, Julian arrives around nine o'clock in the morning, still professing her love.
- The two sit on Bradley's floor, laughing and crying together and talking excitedly about their feelings.
- Soon, Julian tells Bradley that she intends to share the good news with her parents right away.
- Bradley is taken aback, and he asks her not to.
- Then, when Bradley realizes that having Julian keep a secret from her parents is going to drive a wedge between them, he tells her to do whatever she thinks is best.
- After a few hours, Bradley tells Julian that she ought to go—all of those emotions flying around have tuckered him out.
- A few hours later, by late afternoon, Arnold and Rachel Baffin have arrived at Bradley's apartment, shocked and up in arms about the news that Bradley is having an affair with their daughter.
- As Bradley tries to reassure them that he and Julian have real feelings for each other, Arnold and Rachel insist that Julian is distressed and confused.
- After expressing themselves in no uncertain terms, Arnold and Rachel leave Bradley's apartment.
- After a moment, though, Arnold returns and asks if he can have the letter that he sent to Bradley recently—the one confessing his love for Christian and asking for Bradley's help.
- Bradley lies and tells him that he destroyed it.
- After the Baffins leave, Bradley tries to call Julian at home. When he gets no answer after several tries, he goes out and hails a taxi instead.