Was it right or wrong? I can't decide even now. It started waves of nervousness running madly through me. Then, She has a fancy for making me do tricks. Almost every day I must--"Do the Fish, Toby dear." She lifts me in her arms and squeezes me until I gasp. My poor dumb mouth opens as a carp's does when they're drowning it in air.... KIKI-THE-DEMURE That's _just_ like Her! TOBY-DOG Suddenly I find myself free--and still alive, miraculously saved by the power of her will. How beautiful life seems to me then! How fondly I lick the hand hanging at her side, the hem of her dress! KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_contemptuously_) A pretty thing to do! TOBY-DOG All good and all evil come to me from Her. She is my worst torment and my one sure refuge. When I run to her, my heart sick with fear, how soft her arms are and how sweet her hair, falling in my face! I'm her "black-baby," her "Toby-Dog," her "little bit o' love." She sits on the ground to reassure me, making herself little like me--lies down altogether and I go wild with delight at the sight of her face under mine, thrown back in her fragrant hair. My feelings overflow, I can't resist such a chance for a jolly good game. I rummage and fumble about, excitedly poking my nose everywhere, till I find the crispy tip of a pink ear--Her ear. I nibble it just enough to tickle her--to make her cry out: "Stop, Toby! That's awful! Help! Help! This dog's devouring me!" KIKI-THE-DEMURE H'm! Simple, homely, wholesome joys! ... And then, off you go to make friends with the cook. TOBY-DOG And you,--with the cat at the farm. KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_coldly_) Enough I pray, that concerns no one but myself ... and the little cat. TOBY-DOG A pretty conquest! It should make you blush--a seven-months-old kitten! KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_roused_) For me she has all the charm of forbidden fruit and no one dare steal her from me. She is slim as a bean-pole.... TOBY-DOG, (_aside_) You old rascal! KIKI-THE-DEMURE ... and long; poised on long legs she walks with the uncertain step common to all young things. She hunts field-mice, shrew-mice--even partridge, and this hard work in the fields has toughened her young muscles and given a rather gloomy expression to her kitten-face. TOBY-DOG She's ugly. KIKI-THE-DEMURE No, not ugly, but odd-looking. Her muzzle with its very pink nostrils strongly resembles that of a goat, her large ears remind one of a peasant's coif, her eyes the color of old gold are set slant-wise, and their naturally keen expression is varied by an occasional piquant squint. With what a will does she fly me confounding modesty with fear! I pass slowly by (one would think me quite uninterested), draped in my splendid coat. She's struck by its stripes. Oh, she'll come back, a little love-sick kitten, and putting aside all constraint she'll throw herself at my feet--like a supple white scarf-- TOBY-DOG