After Wanda leaves to look for a job the next morning, Henry is tracked down by a wealthy female book publisher, Tully Sorenson, who has been impressed with his writing and is interested in publishing some of his work. She finds him through the detective she has hired. Knowing Henry is destitute, Tully pays him an "advance" of five hundred dollars. Henry then breaks into another apartment after hearing a man abusing his wife. After the man threatens to cut his wife's throat, he and Henry get into an altercation which results in the man being stabbed. Henry scrambles out of the apartment building and goes for a drive in L.A. with Tully. At one point, he rams a car where a man and woman are making out while the light is green. Tully tells him he was immature and reckless in his response. She then takes him back to her home where, after drinks, the two sleep together.