The Last Days of Night

Paul decides not to tell Westinghouse of Tesla’s reappearance yet. Reflecting on all the people in his life he can’t trust, including his partners, Paul saves his anger for Edison:

This soul-corroding position in which he found himself was the result of a war that Edison had started. Thomas Edison was the devil himself. And the real measure of his villainy was the behavior he’d forced on Paul (159-60).

Paul begins his nightly visits to Agnes and Fannie’s Gramercy home to check on Tesla. Fannie makes it clear that she doesn’t like this arrangement and doesn’t like Paul. She threatens to turn on him should this arrangement have a negative effect on Agnes’s career.

Tesla is always in bed when Paul comes, eating nothing but saltine crackers. Slowly, Tesla begins talking again, but all he speaks of are the hallucinatory visions he’s experiencing. He thinks the visions are real, describing beetles, bloody rivers, an endless solar eclipse, and a room of flames. He slowly begins recognizing Paul but can’t remember Edison or Westinghouse. Agnes grows fond of Tesla. She admires that he is not a performer and doesn’t care about anyone else’s opinion of him.