Purr-rr-rr!...There you are!...It's very late ...Toby attacked me; it's he who's broken everything. I believe he went mad from hunger.... You smell good, of grass and the twilight. You sat down on some wild thyme. Come!...Tell your Master to carry me on his shoulder--the meat will be overdone, I'm afraid. You'll carve the chicken very quickly, won't you, and you'll keep the browned skin for me? If you wish I'll stretch out my paw like a spoon, which knows how to take up the littlest morsels, and carry them to my mouth with that human gesture that makes you laugh so--you and He.... Come! TOBY-DOG Hiii ... hiii ... there you are at last! I'm so unhappy when you're away. You banished me ... you didn't love me ... The lamp fell down all by itself ... Come! I'm awfully hungry, but I'll gladly go without dinner, if you'll promise to take me with you always wherever you go ... yes, even out in the twilight, though it makes me sad, I'll willingly follow you there ... my nose close, close to the hem of your dress.... SHE, (_disarmed and quite indifferent to the cataclysm_) Do look how pretty they are! SHE IS ILL _A bed-room in the country-house; autumnal sunshine filters in through closed blinds_. SHE _lies on a couch, apparently asleep, dressed in a white woolen gown_. KIKI-THE-DEMURE _makes his toilet on a narrow console-table_. TOBY-DOG, _on the carpet, in a sphinx-like attitude, watches_ HER _and at the same time, is attentive to the words of his master, who is leaving the room on tip-toe._ HE, (_in a very low voice to the two animals_) Sh! Don't wake her. Be good. I'm going downstairs, to write. (_He closes the door noiselessly after him_.) TOBY-DOG, (_to_ KIKI-THE-DEMURE) What did He say? KIKI-THE-DEMURE I don't know. Something vague. Directions, like: stay there, good-by. TOBY-DOG He said, "'Sh!" _I'm_ not making any noise. KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_ironically_) They're astonishing! They say "no noise," and thereupon walk off with a step a deaf rat could hear two miles away. TOBY-DOG Some truth in that. (_He looks at the sleeping figure on the couch_.) Her face still looks very small. She's asleep. If you jump down from that table don't land with a big thump. KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_stiffly_) Ah, you're teaching me to jump now, are you? Oh, worthy counselor! (_quoting_) Put a beggar in your barn and he'll make himself your heir. TOBY-DOG What's that? KIKI-THE-DEMURE