THIRD VOICE: Then Theodosia, given the surname Bell, the first so honored. Named for Theodosia Singleton, born Bell, sister to the Old War Horse. Godmother sucks all day at the sugar-tit of books, turns back again to the nipple to avoid knowledge. SECOND VOICE: I drink to the health of the unbegotten! THIRD VOICE: Then Stiggins. Curious eyes bent down at the corners. Slobbery mouth. A steel-cunning in his hand. Elastic speed, recoil and reach. FIRST VOICE: Man is a nervous system. I once saw a picture of a man, a real likeness. SECOND VOICE: I drink to the health of the unbegotten! [_Shouting._] I drink to the health! FIRST VOICE: He looked like something you might expect to see under a microscope. A ten-thousand-footed octopus, a rigmarole, a many-fanged serpent. A real likeness. THEODOSIA: Something you might see under a microscope? SECOND VOICE: A cunning in his hand, sewed up in a dull fist. Speed, recoil, reach. Stands above it a slobbery mouth. FIRST VOICE: Annie, then. Fifth child. White, delicate. Fair hair, gray eyes, a frail body. THEODOSIA: An angel among the white angels of the graves. All the sweetness of the earth brought into one frame. A tired little child, used to call to me to wait, gentled by sickness and pain maybe. Her little mouth with the fresh dew of God on it. FIRST VOICE: She was a nervous system, like all the others. SECOND VOICE: Something you might expect to see under a microscope. THIRD VOICE: James Henry Burden, then, sixth child born to Horace and first male heir to the house of Burden. I baptize thee, James Henry Burden, in the name of the.... Second male in the house of Bell, as far as is known. Easy to know. Sweet, blonde languors among the cushions in a portico. FIRST VOICE: I saw the picture of a man, a real speaking likeness. It was a ten-thousand-footed octopus. THEODOSIA: What color was it? FIRST VOICE: White and gray. They called the stuff white matter and gray matter. THEODOSIA: Excellent names. FIRST VOICE: A ten-thousand-footed serpent, every foot a feeler out to feel something. SECOND VOICE: A maw in the middle of it, the chief part, the chief part set in the middle, a hungry enlargement in the alimentary gut. THIRD VOICE: Another maw in the lower middle, the chiefest chief part, another hungry entrail, if you don’t like the short word. FIRST VOICE: A little knob, a very little knob on the top. I saw the true likeness. An infinite number of feelers running out all ways, shaped like a serpent, and a very little knob on the top.