Summary

The narration returns to Downing in the past, and to present-tense, third-person narration. As the public viewing of the aardvark draws closer, Downing cleans and tidies his shop, arranging some of his best pieces in the front display window. He pays particular attention to a stuffed vixen (female fox) he thinks is particularly effective. He also busies himself with the job of stuffing a family lapdog, the narration commenting on how he does not really like that sort of job, but that similar jobs have paid his bills for years. As he works, he becomes aware that the apparition of Ostlet is at his front door, but works hard and continues to ignore it, acting on his science-based belief that life cannot continue after death even as he recalls beliefs about the spirit / life inhabiting the bodies of beings he has stuffed, and...