Part 7 Section 23 Summary

The date is June 15th. The narrator had noticed that one of Satipur's beggars was an old woman who never spoke: she held out her hands only when she was hungry. She was not rooted to a particular area. The narrator notices her lying in the same place first when she drops off her clothes and later when she picks them up. She initially wondered if the woman was dead—concluding that she might be but that it was not her job to do anything about it (at this thought, she wonders at how she had changed, not even having bothered to see if the woman was alive). She later ascertains that the woman is alive and walks to the hospital. The doctor there is more than polite but can do nothing. Where, asked the narrator, should the old woman...