Changes

== "Do something" ==

== "Do something" ==

In October, the [[Internal Revenue Service]] placed a lien on all of Henry's accounts, for the settlement of a [[tax]] debt that Henry was sure that he did not actually owe. Then Henry received a summons to his old family home.  (He had moved out after Floyd Ferris had collected his signature on the patent release.) There, his mother, soon-to-be-ex-wife, and brother were begging him to give his personal guarantee to pay their grocery bill. Henry asked them whether they would have him defraud the grocer into thinking that he actually owned the millions of dollars attributed to him, given that all his assets were under a tax lien.

In October, the [[Internal Revenue Service]] placed a lien on all of Henry's accounts, for the settlement of a [[tax]] debt that Henry was sure that he did not actually owe. Then Henry received a summons to his old family home.  (He had moved out after Floyd Ferris had collected his signature on the patent release.) There, his mother, his now ex-wife, and brother were begging him to give his personal guarantee to pay their grocery bill. Henry asked them whether they would have him defraud the grocer into thinking that he actually owned the millions of dollars attributed to him, given that all his assets were under a tax lien.

 

Then Philip reminded him that he would not be able to vanish without money, and now he realized why his assets were frozen: the government was afraid that he would quit and vanish. Henry first accused his mother of being part of that plot, but then Philip let slip, "Mother didn't know it!" Henry contemptuously told Philip that he would not reveal to the looters' cabal who had blown the gaffe.

That was when Lillian Rearden blurted out to him that she herself had had an affair with another man, and that man was James Taggart, whom she herself described as "the scummiest louse." Henry received that statement with complete indifference, and Lillian was devastated to see close-up that Henry literally did not care what she did with her life, and that it did not concern him any longer.

That was when Lillian Rearden blurted out to him that she herself had had an affair with another man, and that man was James Taggart, whom she herself described as "the scummiest louse." Henry received that statement with complete indifference, and Lillian was devastated to see close-up that Henry literally did not care what she did with her life, and that it did not concern him any longer.

Then someone reminded him that he would not be able to vanish without money, and now he realized why his assets were frozen: the government was afraid that he would quit and vanish. As he turned to leave his house for what would turn out to be the last time, his mother asked him whether he was "really incapable of forgiveness." He said,{{cquote|No, mother, I am not. I would have forgiven the past, if today you had advised me to quit and disappear.}}

As he turned to leave his house for what would turn out to be the last time, his mother asked him whether he was "really incapable of forgiveness." He said,{{cquote|No, mother, I am not. I would have forgiven the past, if today you had advised me to quit and disappear.}}

He left his home and went to a meeting that several Washington men had urged him to attend, on the pretext that they could "straighten out" his tax situation. There he met James Taggart, Floyd Ferris, Wesley Mouch, and several other men, mostly from the Bureau of Economic Planning and Natural Resources. They spoke to him in several strange terms, and even spoke of protecting him from violence, but never explained what the violence might come from. Then they told him their true purpose: to implement the Steel Unification Plan, under which all of the steel firms in the country would share their revenues and be paid according to the blast furnaces they owned, regardless of productivity.

He left his home and went to a meeting that several Washington men had urged him to attend, on the pretext that they could "straighten out" his tax situation. There he met James Taggart, Floyd Ferris, Wesley Mouch, and several other men, mostly from the Bureau of Economic Planning and Natural Resources. They spoke to him in several strange terms, and even spoke of protecting him from violence, but never explained what the violence might come from. Then they told him their true purpose: to implement the Steel Unification Plan, under which all of the steel firms in the country would share their revenues and be paid according to the blast furnaces they owned, regardless of productivity.