Summary

The narration returns to Downing in the past, and to present-tense, third-person narration, which begins with a description of Downing’s elaborate and hopeful plans for the first showing of the aardvark to the public. Those plans include a great deal of letter-writing and poster-making, as well as hiring a troupe of actors to embody and portray what Downing believes would be the aardvark’s way of moving. He resolves to not advertise the eyes, as he believes the surprise of seeing them will help viewers “see what he sees: a peculiar, melancholic kind of beauty” (75). In contemplating the eyes, he recalls his last intimate encounter with Ostlet, in which Ostlet confessed his increased difficulty seeing, and in which Downing suggested he travel with Ostlet to Africa as his assistant. Ostlet left the room so hurriedly that Downing knew their time together was...