THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Retreating coquettishly._] Do you love me more than her? CHANTECLER [_With a cry of warning._] Be careful, a snare! THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Jumping aside._] Ready to spring! [_Dimly visible against a tree, is, in fact, a spread bird-net._] CHANTECLER [_Examining it._] A dangerous contrivance. THE PHEASANT-HEN Forbidden by the game-laws of 44. CHANTECLER [_Laughing._] Do you know that? THE PHEASANT-HEN You seem to forget that the object of your affections comes under the head of game. CHANTECLER [_With a touch of sadness._] It is true that we are of different kinds. THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Returning to his side with a hop._] I want you to love me more than her. Say it’s me you love most. Say it’s me! THE WOODPECKER [_Reappearing._] I! CHANTECLER [_Looking up._] Not in a love-scene. THE PHEASANT-HEN [_To the_ WOODPECKER.] See here,--you! Be so kind another time as to knock! WOODPECKER [_Disappearing._] Certainly. Certainly. THE PHEASANT-HEN [_To_ CHANTECLER.] He has a bad habit of thrusting his bill between the bark and the tree, but he is a rare scholar, exceptionally well informed-- CHANTECLER [_Absent-mindedly._] On what subjects? THE PHEASANT-HEN The language of birds. CHANTECLER Indeed? THE PHEASANT-HEN For, you know, the birds when they say their prayers speak the common language, but when they chat together in private they use a twittering dialect, wholly onomatopoetic. CHANTECLER They talk Japanese. [_The_ WOODPECKER _knocks three times with his bill on the tree: Rat-tat-tat!_] Come in! THE WOODPECKER [_Appearing, indignant._] Japanese, did you say? CHANTECLER Yes. Some of them say, Tio! Tio! and others say Tzoui! Tzoui! THE WOODPECKER Birds have talked Greek ever since Aristophanes! CHANTECLER [_Rushing to the_ PHEASANT-HEN.] Oh, for the love of Greek! [_They bill._] THE WOODPECKER Know, profane youth, that the Black-chat’s cry Ouis-ouis-tra-tra, is a corruption of the word Lysistrata! [_Disappears._] THE PHEASANT-HEN [_To_ CHANTECLER.] Will you never love anyone but me? [THE WOODPECKER’S _knock is heard: Rat-tat-tat._] CHANTECLER Come in! THE PHEASANT-HEN [_To_ CHANTECLER.] Do you promise? THE WOODPECKER [_Appears, soberly nodding his red cap._] Tiri-para! sings the small sedge-warbler to the reeds. Incontrovertibly from the Greek. _Para,_ along, and the word water is understood. [_Disappears._] CHANTECLER He has Greek on the brain! THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Reverting to her idea._] Am I the whole, whole world to you? CHANTECLER Of course you are, only-- THE PHEASANT-HEN In my green-sleeved Oriental robe, I look to you--how do I look? CHANTECLER Like a living commandment ever to worship that which comes from the East. THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Exasperated._] Will you stop thinking of the light of day, and think only of the light in my eyes?