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Babbitt apprehensively takes a taxi to Paul\'s hotel, where he bullies a clerk into letting him into Paul\'s room. He half fears that Paul has committed suicide and is greatly relieved when he opens the bathroom door and discovers no body.
Paul arrives three hours late, furious that Babbitt has interfered with his private life. Babbitt attacks his friend for having an affair--it will threaten Paul\'s position in Zenith, Babbitt says self-righteously, and make his marriage to Zilla even worse than it already is. What do you think about Paul? Is his way of rebelling against his life a constructive one or does it reveal his essential weakness?
Paul is too weak willed to maintain his anger for long. Collapsing in a chair, he explains how Zilla has made his life miserable, how May Arnold has comforted him. Babbitt softens when he sees his friend\'s anguish, and offers his help. On the way back to Zenith he stops in Akron and mails a postcard to Zilla, claiming he ran into Paul there, and when he arrives home, he visits Zilla in person.
If the unhappy marriage has made Paul whining and unfaithful, it\'s made Zilla lazy and bitter. She knows her husband has a woman in Chicago, she says. Babbitt defends his friend as \"the nicest most sensitive critter on God\'s green earth\" and makes Zilla promise to treat him better.
When Paul returns, the Rieslings\' marriage does seem to improve. But Paul whispers to Babbitt, \"Some day I\'m going to break away from her.\" We\'ll see in the next chapter just how that break occurs.
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