I don't know now what we were talking about.

TOBY-DOG

The fev--

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_quickly_)

Enough. Don't recall it. Fever is the beginning of the thing one never
speaks of.

TOBY-DOG, (_shivering_)

Yes, I know.... I don't like an animal that can't move. You know what I
mean ...

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_laughing cruelly_)

Nor do I. I can only eat live birds, and as for the tiny mice, I prefer
to swallow them, squeak and all....

TOBY-DOG

Why does it amuse you to horrify me? You've a certain vanity that I
can't understand. It consists in exaggerating cruelties that are already
real enough. You call me the last of the Romanticists, aren't you the
first of the Sadics?

KIKI-THE-DEMURE