Chapters 17-20 Summary

In Chapter 17 Vane finds a carriage and the skeletons of horses, driver, and passengers. The passengers get out and commence fighting like an old married couple, befuddled by their whereabouts. Vane considers that because there are Little Ones and the sleepers in this world, it cannot be Hell. Raven, however, appears to clarify that the skeletons—but not Vane or the speaker—are in Hell. He tells of the couple's former glory and decline into mutual repugnance and predicts that they will yet love one another into being. The dancers whom Vane has seen are centuries ahead of this couple, coming close to developing faces again. Raven still cannot tell Vane who he is, because they perceive two very different persons. He reminds Vane of his earlier deception and predicts that evil will befall him, for good or not...