Elisha notices that the room feels “stuffy,” which he attributes to having too many visitors. Since midnight, the ghosts of “all of those who contributed to […] the formation of [Elisha’s] permanent identity” (54) have been pouring into the house. They include people he’s never actually met and people he never knew well, but they all had a significant impact on him. He focuses particularly on the ghosts of his parents, his old family rabbi (“the grizzled master”), the beggar he met as a boy, and his child-self. Later, he notices his childhood friend Yerachmiel, who he didn’t know had died.

When Elisha asks the ghosts why they’ve come, they don’t respond; the ghosts of his mother and rabbi weep and exclaim, “Poor little boy!” (55). The Beggar tells him that the ghost of his child-self can answer his questions.

Young Elisha explains that the ghosts are present because they want to see Elisha “turn into a murderer” (57). As they are the ghosts of the people who shaped Elisha’s identity, his killing of Dawson will implicate them all.

Gideon returns from downstairs and reports that Dawson is hungry, but Elisha still doesn’t want to bring him food.