Summary

The author explains that the moth eventually tired out and settled on the window. She forgot about him. But later, she says that he once again caught her eye. The moth was trying to move once more, but appeared to struggle. "He was trying to resume his dancing," she says, "but seemed either so stiff or so awkward that he could only flutter to the bottom of the windowpane" (4). She explains that she, thinking of other things, continued to watch the moth mindlessly. She thought nothing of his struggles and assumed that the moth would resume its activity she had observed before. She waited "as one waits for a machine, that has stopped momentarily, to start again without considering the reason of its failure" (4). But, after multiple attempts to fly again, the moth eventually falls from the windowpane. He lands on the window sill...