The chapter opens with the narrator thanking the beauty parlor for taking him back to work. He says that he has to write a column for the gourmet section of the paper. The food is good, and the narrator wonders if it is good enough for him. He asks the beauty if he waited for him to finish work, and she says that she did. The narrator asks if he can buy some wine to take to his place, and he says yes, and they will go to the beauty place. The beauty parlor invites the narrator home, but the narrator says that it is too nerveous to invite him home, and that he even invites the man over. He wants to eat some red sea bream, but he is depressed by the fish, and wants to run away. The fish, he says, is "bliss" and "smoothness." The narrator says he wants to be eaten, too, by the beauty, and asks her to have a bite of the fish.