The Final Solution

Even on a sultry afternoon like this one, when cold and damp did not trouble the hinges of his skeleton,

fortune and his reputation through a l

. Yet even through this distorting pane it seemed to the old man that he had never before glimpsed two beings more intimate in their parsimonious sharing of a sunny summer afternoon than these.

even through this distorting pane it seemed to the old man that he had never before glimpsed two beings more intimate in their parsimonious sharing of a sunny summer afternoon than these.

was ancient glass the old man peered through, rich with ripples and bubbles that twisted and toyed with the world outside. Yet e

With each step the boy dragged his toes in the rail bed, as if measuring out his journey with careful ruled marks of his shoetops in the gravel.

through a long and brilliant series of extrapolations from unlikely groupings of facts—could not, could never, have begun to foretell.

He was struck, as well, by their apparent silence. It

brought the long bones of his face closer to the window-pane.

Charmed him, or aroused his sense