MADAM. Then speak! Speak now, sir!--at once, sir!

FOX. I speak. O sweet Miss Crow, how beautiful your wings are!

MADAM (_pleased_). Do you hear that, daughter?

[_Miss Crow nods, spreading her wings proudly._]

FOX. I speak again. How bright your eye, dear maid! How graceful your neck!

MADAM. Bend your neck, child! Now bend it well that he may better see your
grace.

[_Miss Crow bends neck twice._]

FOX. But oh, that such a sweet bird should be dumb!--should be so utterly
dumb!

[_He weeps gently in his little pocket handkerchief._]

MADAM (_indignantly_). Do you think, sir, she cannot _caw_ as well as the
rest of us?

FOX. I must think so, dear madam. Alas!

[_Weeping again in his little pocket handkerchief._]

MADAM. You shall think so, then, no longer! Caw, child, caw, as you have
never cawed before!