I saw faces instantaneously grow faded and bleached; I saw mouths filled with food suddenly motionless and forks hanging in air. Then everything became confused, jumped off the centuries-old tracks, everybody jumped up from his place (without singing the Hymn!) and confusedly, in disorder, hastily finishing chewing, choking, grasping one another.⁠ ⁠… They were asking: “What? What happened? What?⁠ ⁠…” And the disorderly fragments of the Machine which was once perfect and great, fell down in all directions⁠—down the elevators, down the stairs.⁠ ⁠… Stamping of feet.⁠ ⁠… Pieces of words like pieces of torn letters carried by the wind.⁠ ⁠…

The same outpour from the neighboring houses. A minute later the avenue seemed like a drop of water under a microscope: the infusoria locked up in the transparent, glass-like drop of water were tossing around, to the sides, up and down.