- Miller describes walking down the Champs-Elysees with Carl, "ideas pouring from [him] like sweat." His optimism is really annoying to his friend, whose nerves are jangled. "'I hate Paris!' Carl whines.
- Carl just can't make up his mind about whether to stay in Paris or move to Arizona. The narrator thinks Carl is "an aristocratic little prick" (4.8). Tell us how you really feel.
- They run into their friend Marlowe at the Restaurant Le Dôme. Like almost everyone else in this novel, Marlowe is on a bender and talking serious smack. Marlowe gets pleasure out of the fact that Carl is worse off than he is.
- Marlowe is returning to San Francisco and offers to throw some work Carl's way. Carl wants to take the job and screw Marlowe over.