Dr. Stadler attempts to criticize his colleague Dr. Ferris’s recent book, but Ferris is dismissive despite his obsequious manner. Stadler is eager to meet with Dagny when she asks for his input on the motor. He doesn’t know how to rebuild it, nor who could have designed it, but he recommends Quentin Daniels as one who may be able to repair it.

Tony, mockingly nicknamed the “Wet Nurse” by Hank Rearden’s workers, is a young man sent from Washington to supervise Rearden’s steel mills. His quotas disallow Rearden from fulfilling vital industrial orders, even as RM is squandered on nonessential consumer goods. Rearden refuses to provide the SSI with an order of RM. Despite their threats, the SSI won’t risk the public outcry that stealing by force may incur, so Rearden’s refusal holds.

Rearden and Dagny continue their affair. Rearden buys Dagny many expensive gifts for his own pleasure rather than hers; it pleases him that she doesn’t need them. She enjoys being a luxury object for him and thinks that they are the only people in society capable of enjoying wealth and luxury properly.