Nicholas comforts Maggie by patting her condescendingly and offering her explanations for Joe's absence. Joe arrives at Angelique's, where he tells her he doesn’t want to be here. Maggie wonders what is wrong with Joe; Nicholas speculates that it may be an "unpleasant aftereffect" of his accident (530), which Joe has denied to Maggie (573). Maggie says if Joe doesn’t cough up some answers for his unpleasant behavior soon, it may be too late.