This chapter opens with a short scene in which Shymour and his son, the small theater, are preparing for bed. Shymours, who is dressed in finery, tells his son that he has made him a bed for the night. When the boy asks why he wants to sleep with him, he is told that he used to hug him when he was a child, but now that he is grown up, they cannot sleep together. He also tells the boy that his clan has told him that the smell of his clothes is like that of beasts, and that humans do not like the smell. The boy, however, is not sure if he can smell his clothes or his bedding, and he wonders if he will be able to live with him.