THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Trying to lead him off._] Come! Come! A HEN She is eloping with him. CHANTECLER I am coming! But--[_Coming forward again._] I must first say to this Peacock, in the presence of that Addlepate--[_Indicating the_ GUINEA-HEN.] THE GUINEA-HEN He insults me in my own house. Sensational! CHANTECLER False hero whom Fashion has taken for leader, you walk in such terror of appearing behindhand to the eyes of your own tail that your throat is blue with it! But, urged forward, on and on, by every staring eye upon it, you will fall at last, breathless for good and all, and end in the false immortality bestowed, false artist, by the--[_Imitating the manner of the_ PEACOCK.] shall I say bird-stuffer? THE GUINEA-HEN [_Mechanically._] Yes! CHANTECLER No. Taxidermist,--to use the word you would prefer. That, my dear Peacock, is what I wished to say. THE BLACKBIRD Bang! CHANTECLER [_Turning toward him._] As for you-- THE BLACKBIRD Fire away! CHANTECLER I will! You became acquainted one grey morning with a city sparrow, did you not tell us so? That was your ruin. You have been possessed ever since with the desire to appear like one yourself. THE BLACKBIRD But-- CHANTECLER From that hour, unresting, acting the sparrow night and day, the sparrow even in sleep, self-condemned to play the sparrow without respite, you have appeared--famous jay! THE BLACKBIRD But-- CHANTECLER Pathetic effort of a country birdkin, twisting his thick bill to talk with a city accent! Ah, you wish to bite off bits of slang? My friend, they are green! Every grape you pick breaks in your jaws, for city grapes are glass bubbles! Having taken from the sparrow only his make-up and grimace, you are just a clumsy understudy, a sort of vice-buffoon! And you serve up stale old cynicisms picked up with crumbs in fashionable club-rooms, poor little bird, and think to astonish us with your budget of scandalous news-- THE BLACKBIRD But-- CHANTECLER I have not exhausted my ammunition! You wish to imitate the sparrow? But the sparrow does not, slyly and meanly mischievous, make a cult of sprightliness is not funny with authority, is not the pedant of flippancy! You percher among low bushes, who never care to fly, you wish to imitate--[_Turning to one of the exotic_ COCKS _cackling behind him._] Silence, Cock of Japan! or I shall spoil a picture! THE JAPANESE COCK [_Hurriedly._] I beg your pardon! CHANTECLER [_Continuing to the_ BLACKBIRD.] You wish to imitate the sparrow, who, rising on light wing, underlines his words with a telegraph wire! Very well, I hate to grieve you, but--you know I can hear the sparrows when they come to steal my corn!--you are not in it, you do not pull it off. Your lingo is a fake! THE BLACKBIRD A--? CHANTECLER And your performance is a shine! THE BLACKBIRD He can talk slang? CHANTECLER I can talk anything!--It’s the Paris article made in Germany! THE BLACKBIRD But--