The high point of the scene comes with the arrival of Lady Brett Ashley accompanied by a group of extraordinarily handsome (and possibly gay) young men. Brett exudes sexuality and sophistication. Cohn is enthralled by her, but she refuses his request to dance and leaves the night club with Jake. The two take a cab ride through the streets of Paris, but when he tries to kiss her, Brett turns away, explaining that she cannot go through "that hell again." Brett and Jake are clearly kindred, world-weary spirits, there is a powerful affinity (and a past history) between them. Yet they both know that a romantic affair is impossible given Jake's disability and Brett's pattern of destroying the men in her life. .
On the next day Cohn interrogates Jake about Brett and about their taxi cab ride. When Cohn says that he is in love with Brett, Jake tells him that she is a drunk and that she is already engaged to another British nobleman, Mike Campbell. At the Café Select that evening, Frances bitterly declares that Cohn is sending her off to London. She knows that he is now done with her, and she scornfully taunts him about his inferiority complex. Brett announces her own plan to go to San Sebastian (it is only later that we learn that she is accompanied there by Cohn). Jake receives a welcome telegram from an old American friend, Bill Gorton. Gorton will soon be arriving in France and they will then go on a fishing expedition to the Basque country before attending the annual festival and bullfights in Pamplona, Spain. Brett's fiancée, Michael Campbell, arrives in Paris. There is a dilemma in the offing. If the smitten Cohn joins Jake in Bayonne as planned, and awkward situation is bound to arise because Brett and her fiancée will be there at the same time. To Jake's chagrin, Cohn announces that he will be in Bayonne as scheduled and that he will go to Pamplona as well. .
Cohn is already in Bayonne when Jake and Campbell arrive, and the three drive to Pamplona and where they take rooms at a hotel where Jake has stayed is the past.
