At least after this chapter we can put the sex back into the bottle until a bunch of chapters later.
Francisco explains his facade of being a playboy and explains in depth that sexual attraction, the act of sex is an extension of the man and his moral code.
There are a great number of exceptional men in the novel, many of them snatched away by the “destroyer” , but Dagney is the only exceptional woman.
If you recall, Francisco told Hank that there was only 1 woman that he loved, still loved and hoped to win back.
I don't think Hank sees Franciso’s presence as conquest.
What he is really afraid of is that Dagny may still harbor the love she once felt for Francisco.
Hank is a smart guy, he'd have put Dagney’s previous confession and Franciso’s confession together pretty quickly.
Well, on some level Rand was still the high school girl fantasizing - though the fictional Dagny - about all the top football players being in love with her. Doesn't take away from the main message of the book, though. :)
Yeah. Doesn't really do much for the story (the ongoing affair with HR at least), but to illustrate something Rand had to say about sexual attraction, perhaps to justify her own legendary promiscuity. Something I believe is an impertinence and a needless distraction. The continuation of that story line might convince me I'm wrong, but I doubt it.
BTW I have caught up and I'm actually a couple chapters ahead. I picked up an audio version, which increases the time I can give to following the story. It is something like 53 hours of audio.