SECOND VOICE: The murderer. Murder in her hands. A snake in her belly. A FOURTH VOICE, _screaming_: She eats murder and snakes. FIRST VOICE: Frank. She asked him for bread and he gave her a snake. SECOND VOICE: If you had a hog to kill for food, could you butcher a hog? Would you? THEODOSIA: I’d have no idea how to go about it. SECOND VOICE: Knock it in the head with the axe. Then watch it bleed. Stick its throat and catch the blood in a dish. Blood is good to drink. Blood pudding. Cut it open along the bacon. Cut out the melt first. Hog liver fried in fat is good. A little onion. Pepper. Makes your mouth water. THEODOSIA: But the hog is still alive. Where is the hog now? FIRST VOICE: You asked him for bread and he gave you a serpent. SECOND VOICE: What was she out to kill? FOURTH VOICE: She helped Lethe kill Ross. SECOND VOICE: She wanted to kill. Kill! kill! Why didn’t she kill a hog? THEODOSIA: Where was I? Oh, yes. And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying As if impatient to be playing Upon his pipe, as low it dangled Over his vesture so old-fangled. THIRD VOICE: She wanted to kill. There was a night when she had kill inside her. She helped Lethe do her work. SECOND VOICE: Why isn’t she in prison then? Where’s Lethe? THEODOSIA: As if impatient to be playing Upon his pipe, as low it dangled Over his vesture so old-fangled. SECOND VOICE: Her hand went with Lethe’s. Into Ross. All night blood ran out. FOURTH VOICE: Too bad it wasn’t a hog. Melts fried in fat make a right good dish. Onion. A little butter. THEODOSIA: Upon his pipe, as low it dangled Over his vesture so old-fangled. SECOND VOICE: She likes to forget it. All night Ross bled out his life. A man, he was, what they call life in his body, and then he went out, a slash in his throat. THEODOSIA: And as for what your brain bewilders, If I can rid your town of rats, Will you give me a thousand gilders? THIRD VOICE: Took the trouble to find out about the will. Peeped around and quizzed old Daniels. How now, is old Miss Doe a-leaven her farm? Too bad. Told her the second time he’d had her. Too bad. Left it all to some charity, every cent. Some kind of hospitals away off somewhere, a long way off. In trust to some board. THEODOSIA: The mountain and the squirrel Had a quarrel; And the former called the latter Little Prig. The former called the latter.... SECOND VOICE: Told her after he’d had her. Sat back afterward, cool, to smoke a little. Said old Daniels gave him to know. Too bad. Not a cent to any niece. All to some hospital. Away off somewhere. THEODOSIA: To make up a year And a sphere. And I think it’s no disgrace To occupy my place.