It was about half past midnight when the alarm sounded, summoning the employees to the cafeteria for tea. A trembling voice, sad and heavy with indescribable emotion, said, "Look at me, Elizabeth. She seems tired." It was Norilus. He himself, dressed in his usual robes, was complaining of pain in his left knee for the past two years, caused by the temperature of a cold storage room, which was bringing on premature signs of aging. After asking his companion for help sitting down, he spent part...