Part 14 (1/2)
TOBY-DOG
What? You're listening to some noise?
KIKI-THE-DEMURE
No! _Heavens_, no! Don't mention noise. The mere sound of your voice makes the skin on my back go in waves like the sea. TOBY-DOG, (_frightened_)
Are you going to die?
KIKI-THE-DEMURE
I hope not. I've a sick headache. Can't you see the arteries throbbing under the almost hairless skin of my temples--the transparent, bluish skin that denotes a thoroughbred? It's atrocious! The veins on my forehead are like writhing vipers, and I don't know _what_ gnome forges in my brain! Oh, be quiet! Or at least speak so low that the coursing of my agitated blood may drown the sound of your voice....
TOBY-DOG
But it's this very silence that oppresses me. I tremble and don't know why. I long for the familiar voice of the wind in the chimney, the slamming of doors, the whispering of the garden, the poplars' ceaseless rustle--it always sounds like a trickling spring--
KIKI-THE-DEMURE
The uproar will come, soon enough.
TOBY-DOG Do you think so? I wish He'd scratch paper. It's an idle habit but an honored one. And see how listless She is, there in her wicker chair. Their silence frightens me more than anything. She seems asleep, but I can see her eyelashes move and the tips of her fingers, too. She's forgetting to play with the little b.a.l.l.s of thread and doesn't sing, or whistle. She suffers just as we do.... Do you think this can be the end of the world, Cat?
KIKI-THE-DEMURE
No. It's a storm. Heavens! how uncomfortable I am! If I could only get out of my skin, cast off this fleece which is smothering me, fling myself naked as a skinned mouse into a fresher atmosphere! Oh Dog, you cannot see the sparks that make every separate hair on my body crackle, but I feel them. Don't come near! A blue flame is going to shoot out of me....
TOBY-DOG, (_shuddering_)
Things are coming to an awful pa.s.s! (_He drags himself to the porch_.) _What_ have they done to the out-of-doors? Look! the trees are all blue and the gra.s.s glistens like a sheet of water. What mournful sunlight! It s.h.i.+nes white on the slate roofs, and the little houses over there on the hill look like brand new tombstones. A heavy odor, like bitter almond, creeps from the white bell-shaped blossoms of the daturas, and makes me feel sick and faint. Far away, some smoke, heavy as the perfume of the daturas, goes slowly up in a straight line and falls again--like a broken aigrette.... But come and see for yourself!
(KIKI-THE-DEMURE _walks falteringly to the porch_.)
TOBY-DOG
My word, _you're_ changed too, Cat! You look as if you were starving, your face is so drawn. Your fur is plastered down in some places and sticking up in others; gives you the expression of a weasel that had tumbled into oil.
KIKI-THE-DEMURE
Don't let that worry you! I'll regain my dignity--if ever another day dawns for us. To-day, I drag myself around unwashed, uncombed, like a woman out of love with love, and life....
TOBY-DOG
You say such distressing things. I think I'll whine and call for help.
Perhaps I'd better go to Her, and look in her face for the comfort you refuse me. But She seems asleep now, in that wicker chair, and how can I read my fate in her eyes, when their lids are down. I'll lick her hand very respectfully and ever so lightly! That will wake her and oh, may her first caress drive away the evil charm!
(_He licks the hand hanging at the side of the chair_.)
SHE, (_with a scream_) Heavens! how you frightened me! Was there ever such a ninny as this Dog? There!...
(SHE _administers a smart rap on the nose_. TOBY'S _nerves give way and he howls loud and long_.)