Part 5 (1/2)

TOBY-DOG, (_distracted_)

Oh, you inexplicable person! How can you sit there quietly? Don't you hear those cries? They're stopping now--the accident has gone away. Wish I'd known ...

(_The train starts again_.)

HE, (_throwing down his paper_)

The poor beast is hungry.

SHE, (_now very wide awake_)

You think so? Well, I am too. But Toby is to eat very little.

HE, (_anxiously_)

And Kiki-the-Demure?

SHE, (_peremptorily_) Kiki sulks, and he hid this morning, so he'll have even less than Toby.

HE

He isn't making a sound. Aren't you afraid he's sick?

SHE

No, he's simply vexed.

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_as soon as there's question of himself_)

Me-ow!

HE, (_tenderly and eagerly_)

Come my beautiful Kiki, my imprisoned one, come. You shall have cold roast-beef and some breast of chicken ...

(_He opens the prison basket and_ KIKI _puts forth his_ _head, flattened on top like that of a serpent; then his long, striped body, cautiously, and so very slowly that one begins to think it's coming out by the yard_.)

TOBY-DOG, (_pleasantly)

Ah, there you are, cat! Well, now, proclaim your freedom!

(KIKI, _without replying, smoothes his ruffled fur_.)

TOBY-DOG

Proclaim your freedom I tell you! It's the custom. Whenever a door is opened one must run, jump, twist oneself into half circles and cry out.

KIKI-THE-DEMURE

_One_? Who's one, pray?