Summary

Pages 157 – 185. Narration describes how Henry’s next few weeks are complicated and chaotic, but that he nevertheless continues to have the taxidermist and the play on his mind. Narration then describes how Henry plays the lead in a difficult play put on by The Greenhouse Players (narration describing how the Players had, in recent years, worked towards doing more difficult and challenging plays), and how Erasmus, having somehow contracted rabies, attacks Mendelssohn. Both animals ultimately have to be put down. Mendelssohn is killed by an injection, while Erasmus dies in a small gas chamber. As a precaution to make sure that rabies is not passed on to the yet-unborn baby, Henry gets a series of rabies shots.

Narration then describes how, one day at rehearsal, two things happen: Henry realizes that the other members of the company have discovered who he is (Henry having...