Atlas Shrugged – Day 010 – pp. 94-103
Francisco is a very directed young man. He deplores standing still. Worse yet, he despises moving aimlessly — without purpose.
Francisco was clearly the alpha dog of their little three pup pack (Dagny, Francisco and Eddie.)
He considers learning about life as or more important that spending time in libraries.
And apparently for most of his life, he has been preparing to run d’Anconia Copper.
He had an interesting take on life and wealth even as a young man…
“Dont you ever think of anything but d’Anconia Copper?” Jim asked him once.
“No.”
“It seems to me that there are other things in the world.”
“Let others think about them.”
Isn’t that a very selfish attitude?”
“It is.”
“What are you after?”
“Money”
“Don’t you have enough?”
“In his lifetime, every one of my ancestors raised the production of d’Aconia copper by about ten percent. I intend to raise it by one hundred.”
“What for?” Jim asked in sarcastic imitation of Francisco’s voice.
“When I die, I hope to go to heaven — whatever the hell that is — and I want to be able to afford the price of admission.”
“Virtue is the price of admission.” Jim said haughtily
“That’s what I mean, James. So I want to be prepared to claim the greatest virtue of all — that I was a man who made money.”
(Actually as revealing of Jim as Francisco.)
Next summer when Francisco came back he was sixteen. The time he and Dagny spent together seems to have turned up a notch on the attraction scale.
But he’s still focused. Dagny asked once,
“Francisco, what’s the most depraved type of human being?”
“One without a purpose.”
At one point they talk about the importance of how well one does their work. Dagny confesses she’s not sure. She’s always been unpopular in school. She thought maybe if she just got D’s instead of A’s she could fit in a little better.
Francisco slapped her.
“Don’t ever do that again. Don’t crack jokes of that kind.”
Next summer…
This time Dagny is sweet sixteen.
The attraction has bloomed even further. (Maybe absence does make the heart grow fonder.)
Now she has a part time job as night operator at the Rockdale station. An existence that suits her. College (engineering school) during the day, work at Rockdale every night. Apparently she’s never expressed any interest in boys.
How do we take that little revelation?
Dagny’s mother believes her daughter is incapable of having fun.
When the time for her debut party came, Mrs. T didn’t know how she would handle it. True to form, Dagny came through – dressed as lovely as ever. And she played the role throughout the entire party.
But at the end of the evening, Dagny was sitting by herself…