Part 9 (1/2)

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_dryly_)

Don't you believe it, they're only good to eat. They're noisy, stupid creatures, infatuated with themselves, _made_ to be eaten. ... You know the two jays?

TOBY-DOG

Not very well.

KIKI-THE-DEMURE They live in the little wood. When I walk by they laugh a sardonic ”tiac, tiac,” because I wear a bell at my neck. In vain do I hold my head very stiffly and put my paws down _very_ gently, my bell tinkles and the two creatures scream from the top of the fir-tree. Just let me get hold of them, one of these days!...

(_He lays back his ears and raises the hair along his back_.)

TOBY-DOG, (_pensive_) Positively, Cat, there are times when I don't know you. We are talking quietly and suddenly you bristle like a bottle-brush; or we happen to be playing amicably together and I bark behind your back--bow, wow-wow!--just for fun; then,--one doesn't know why, perhaps because my nose has grazed the long hairs on your legs you're so proud of--you become all at once a savage beast, spitting fire, and charging at me like a strange dog. Don't you think that shows a bad character?

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_mysterious, eyes half-closed_)

Not at all. It's character, simply. A Cat's character. In such moments of irritability, I'm keenly alive to the humiliation of my present state, and that of my race.

I can remember a time when priests in long, linen tunics, bending low, spoke to us and humbly tried to comprehend our chanted utterance. Know, dog, that it is not _we_ who have changed! It may be, there are days when I'm more myself, when everything offends me, and justly; a brusque gesture, a vulgar laugh, the banging of a door, your odor, your inconceivable impudence when you touch me, or encircle me, jumping and yelping ...

TOBY-DOG, (_patiently, to himself_)

He's having one of his attacks.

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_with a start_)

Did you hear?

TOBY-DOG

Yes, the kitchen door, and the door into the dining-room ... and now the drawer where the spoons are kept. At last! At last! aaah! (_He yawns_.) I can't stand this any longer. _Where_ is She? I don't hear the gravel creaking ... night's coming on!

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_ironically_)

Go find her.

TOBY-DOG

And how about Him? He usually worries, and comes in asking, ”Where is She?” But He's scratching still. He must have drunk up all the violet-colored water in the muddy little pot by this time. (TOBY _carefully stretches his legs_.) Ah! I feel lively ... and empty. We're going to eat soon! Just smell the good kitchen-smells that come under the door!... Let's play!

KIKI-THE-DEMURE

No.

TOBY-DOG

Run, I'll chase, without touching you.

KIKI-THE-DEMURE

No.