Summary

Macmann asks Lemuel questions about his circumstances at Saint John of God’s, such as whether the institution is a “hospice for the aged and infirm or a madhouse,” and whether he has the possibility of ever getting out, but Lemuel does not answer – he ruminates on the question for so long and eventually replies that he does not know the answers. After Lemuel – who enjoys self-inflicted pain – deals himself a blow with a hammer on his previously wounded leg, Macmann demands that he let him get out of his bed.

Back in the present, Malone claims that someone visited him in his room, and dealt him a “violent blow on the head” (262). The man in question wore a “black suit of antiquated cut,” with “oily black hair,” and a “long, dismal, glabrous, floury face” (262). Malone notes that he thought the man was the...