Atlas Shrugged – Day 069 – pp. 752-761 (One extra page at the end of the last chapter.)
Chapter 2 – Utopia of Greed! (Don’t know but it sounds good.)
So it’s morning and Dagny wakes up to see John Galt who’s already working at his desk.
She broke something on the “ray screen” of the power plant when she crashed so he has to run off and do his “handy man” thing. Dagny insists on cooking breakfast while he’s at work.
Getting kind of domestic after only one day.
As she’s cooking, a man she’s never seen runs up and in through the front door.
He wore a dark blue sweater and slacks, he had gold hair and a face of such shocking perfection of beauty that she stood still, staring at him, not in admiration, at first, but in simple disbelief.
Domestic bliss interrupted by another hottie?
He knows her, but she doesn’t recognize him.
You’ve joined us? – No, she crashed the party. – How? – In a plane. (The only way to crash I guess. . .)
“What did Francisco say when he saw you here?”
Uh oh.
He’s not there yet. And maybe it’s a good thing. Cause Dagny can’t stop starting. . .
“. . .she caught herself in the preposterous feeling of wishing that he had no profession at all, because any work seemed too dangerous for his incredible kind of beauty.”
Sheesh.
Any John Galt returns. The two men greet each other and then. . .
“Miss Taggart, may I present Ragnar Danneskjold.”
Oh! It’s the pirate!
They all sit down for breakfast. But where’s Francisco?
Every June 1st John Galt, Ragnar and Francisco all sit down and have breakfast together. They’ve been doing it every year for 12 years. It’s the first time any one of them has missed it.
It’s the three amigos from Hugh Akston’s class. But what’s the significance of June 1st I wonder?
Maybe it’s the fiscal year because Galt and Ragnar compare notes on how each one’s year went. Ragnar’s done good. No wounds, no losses. Not so good for the looters.
John’s done well too getting all the men from Colorado and Ken Danagger as well.
But Ragnar brings news. There’s one man who’s ready to go.
“He’s a man who saved my life, so you can see how far he’s gone.”
Of course we’re talking about Hank Rearden.
But Galt doesn’t want to talk about it.
Huh? Well, he knows that Hank and Dagny are in it up to their eyeballs. And he knows Francisco and Dagny also go way back. Could he be jealous?
Anyway the conversation shifts to what Ragnar does for a living. He goes on telling her about her account in the Mulligan bank, and how he’s following the same, but a different, path as John Galt. And all the while he’s talking, Dagny can’t keep her eyes off him.
He’s dreamy.
But he has to run along. His wife will be expecting him. Wife?!
Apparently he’s married to the movie star Kay Ludlow. (The waitress at the coffee shop.)
But how could a woman be married to a man who’s off risking his life 11 months a year?
She can because. . .
“We do not think that tragedy is our natural fate and we do not live in chronic dread of disaster. We do not expect disaster until we have specific reason to expect it – and when we encounter it, we are free to fight it. It is not happiness, but suffering that we consider unnatural. It is not success but calamity that we regard as the abnormal exception in human life.”
That’s upbeat.
After he leaves, Dagny stands up and refuses to accept his money. (Her money?)
She won’t. And won’t let him risk his life — his beautiful, dreamy, perfect (ok I’m editorializing a bit) life for it.
She has no choice. She’s going to have to pay rent. Huh?
Apparently June is their month off. Kind of like August in Europe. And John Galt is keeping her there for the month. She has no say so. She broke their rules when she crashed. Now she has to live by them. After the month’s up she can go.
OK by her. But she ain’t taking the money.
How will she pay room and board?
Like everything else she does. By working for it.
Doing what?
“In the capacity of your cook and housemaid.”
The job pays $10 a months plus room and board.
There are no lousy jobs. . . Dagny’s hired.