Section 14, Through p. 376 Summary

Returning from Coney Island, Charlie takes Renata to lunch in the Oak Room, high atop the Ritz Hotel. She complains about missing the opera they intended to see in Europe just to go see a couple of old guys in a nursing home, and he offers to take her to the Met instead. She doesn't like what's playing at the Met, however, and decides they should go see the movie Deep Throat instead. Renata chides Charlie for his commitment to the dead Humboldt and derides him about his obsession with all of the intellectual stuff he is always talking about. She knows what's best for him - to marry her and let her take care of him.

The waiter interrupts the lovers' conversation by bringing Charlie a telephone and plugging it in at the table. It is Alec Szathmar...