Part 3 (1/2)
You're very hard to please! I certainly love Him; he's good and pretends not to see my faults, so that he won't have to scold, but She's the most beautiful thing in the world to me, the dearest and--the most difficult to understand. The sound of her step enchants me, her changeful eyes dispense happiness--and trouble. She's like Destiny itself, she never hesitates. Even torture from her hands--you know how She teases me?
KIKI-THE-DEMURE Cruelly.
TOBY-DOG
No, not cruelly, but artfully. I never can tell what's coming next. This morning She bent down as if to speak to me, lifted one of my ”tiny elephant's ears,” as She calls them, and sent a sharp cry into it, which went to the very back of my brain.
KIKI-THE-DEMURE
Horrors!
TOBY-DOG
Was it right or wrong? I can't decide even now. It started waves of nervousness running madly through me. Then, She has a fancy for making me do tricks. Almost every day I must--”Do the Fish, Toby dear.” She lifts me in her arms and squeezes me until I gasp. My poor dumb mouth opens as a carp's does when they're drowning it in air....
KIKI-THE-DEMURE
That's _just_ like Her!
TOBY-DOG
Suddenly I find myself free--and still alive, miraculously saved by the power of her will. How beautiful life seems to me then! How fondly I lick the hand hanging at her side, the hem of her dress!
KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_contemptuously_)
A pretty thing to do!
TOBY-DOG
All good and all evil come to me from Her. She is my worst torment and my one sure refuge. When I run to her, my heart sick with fear, how soft her arms are and how sweet her hair, falling in my face! I'm her ”black-baby,” her ”Toby-Dog,” her ”little bit o' love.” She sits on the ground to rea.s.sure me, making herself little like me--lies down altogether and I go wild with delight at the sight of her face under mine, thrown back in her fragrant hair. My feelings overflow, I can't resist such a chance for a jolly good game. I rummage and fumble about, excitedly poking my nose everywhere, till I find the crispy tip of a pink ear--Her ear. I nibble it just enough to tickle her--to make her cry out: ”Stop, Toby! That's awful! Help! Help! This dog's devouring me!”
KIKI-THE-DEMURE
H'm! Simple, homely, wholesome joys! ... And then, off you go to make friends with the cook.
TOBY-DOG And you,--with the cat at the farm.
KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_coldly_)
Enough I pray, that concerns no one but myself ... and the little cat.
TOBY-DOG
A pretty conquest! It should make you blush--a seven-months-old kitten!
KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_roused_)
For me she has all the charm of forbidden fruit and no one dare steal her from me. She is slim as a bean-pole....
TOBY-DOG, (_aside_)