VII + 

No one had ever found him out. And nothing unusual ever happened. The old man played peacefully for several days, and one very dewy morning he caught cold. He went to bed, and soon died. Dying in the factory hospital, among strangers, indifferent people, he smiled serenely. + 

His memories soothed him. He, too, had been a child; he, too, had laughed and scampered across the green grass, among the dark trees⁠—his beloved mother had followed him with her eyes. + 