- While working in his university office, Jim looks up to see Welch in the doorway. Immediately, he worries that Welch is going to ask him about all the stuff he burned with his cigarette.
- Instead, Welch starts talking to him about school stuff, and Jim switches off most of his attention.
- Welch says something about Jim's article on medieval shipbuilding, but Jim still doesn't know what the conversation is all about.
- But Jim turns all of his attention back on again when Welch tells him that this Caton guy (the one who agreed to publish the article) has a very shifty history.
- Welch isn't saying not to trust the guy, exactly. But he wants Jim to know that it's best if he calls up this Caton guy immediately and asks him for a hard and fast date on when his article is going to come out.
- Jim decides to take this opportunity to ask Welch exactly where he (Jim) stands in the university. During this conversation, Jim has a hard time resisting the urge to punch Welch in the face.
- Welch, though, is really vague in his answers and Jim's ultimately disappointed that he can't find out anything about where he stands.
- Welch ends the conversation by saying he'll let Jim know as soon as anything is decided.
- After leaving Welch, Jim wonders about where things stand between him and Margaret.
- It turns out that after the arty weekend at the Welches', Jim took Margaret out to a pub and persuaded her (with lots of beer) to tell him how she was feeling and to hash things out.
- Now he feels like they're back on good terms.
- At this moment, Jim sees Margaret at the university lounge and goes to sit with her. She starts crying, and he asks her to stop.
- Then she talks about how she's so stupid for getting mad at Jim, and it's Jim's job to comfort her. While she's talking, she slips in the idea that she might be thinking about suicide again. Apparently, she can't sleep at all, and she's not supposed to have sleeping pills.
- Before he even knows what's happening, Jim commits to taking Margaret as his date to the Summer Ball to make her feel better. Immediately, Margaret stops crying and smiles.
- Figures.
- Somewhere in the back of his brain, Jim starts to wonder if Margaret is manipulating him.
- Before they part, Jim finds out that Bertrand is taking Carol Goldsmith (the married woman Jim saw him kissing) to the Summer Ball.
- That probably means that Christine Callaghan is no longer Bertrand's girlfriend.
- Jim agrees to go to the pub with Margaret that night.
- To help pass the time between now and then, he sits down and writes a letter to that Caton guy, asking when his article is going to be published.