Summary

The narration returns to Downing in the past, and to present-tense, third-person narration. On the morning of the Viewing, Downing contemplates the good job he has done on the aardvark, and on how her face looks as though it has a look of love about it, of wisdom and humility. It is this way of looking and feeling, the narration comments, that was in Downing’s gaze as he looked at Ostlet the night before. They had made love, and afterwards Ostlet, already skilled at functioning well while blind, made dinner. The next morning, the morning of the Viewing, Ostlet remains upstairs while Downing prepares his shop and welcomes both his friend Skinner, who will be conducting the auction for the aardvark, and the young actors, whose aardvark-like costumes are not very good and whose behavior is both drunken and inappropriate. Downing...