After the explosion on the wharf, the five stay at Zapadi’s house overnight. When S. wakes up, Stenfalk is furiously writing on a tablet of paper. “The others in the house look nearly as exhausted.” It seems that S is the only one who slept through the night because of his irrelevance to the issue at hand.

Frustrated and stressed, Jen complains that she cannot find the inspiration for her Stevens paper. Perhaps part of the reason she is struggling, she tells Eric, is “I couldn’t concentrate at all while you were gone. (That’s crazy, isn’t it? Because I never see you when you’re here.)” Jen’s recent failure on her Yeats paper may also be related to Eric’s risky trip to Paris. She asks him,

“Was Ilsa there?”
“She was there.”
“And yet you didn’t mention her.”

Jen seems a little jealous or suspicious of Eric because of his previous relations with Ilsa. Yet he tells her, “There was an empty seat next to me on the plane on my way there and I kept thinking you should be in it.” It is evident that Jen and Eric’s attachment to each other signifies evolution in their relationship, yet because Jen never physically sees him much, clearly their relationship is still developing.