TOBY-DOG, (moved with indignation)

You’re very hard to please!  I certainly love Him; he’s good and pretends not to see my faults, so that he won’t have to scold, but She’s the most beautiful thing in the world to me, the dearest and—­the most difficult to understand.  The sound of her step enchants me, her changeful eyes dispense happiness—­and trouble.  She’s like Destiny itself, she never hesitates.  Even torture from her hands—­you know how She teases me?

KIKI-THE-DEMURE Cruelly.

TOBY-DOG

No, not cruelly, but artfully.  I never can tell what’s coming next.  This morning She bent down as if to speak to me, lifted one of my “tiny elephant’s ears,” as She calls them, and sent a sharp cry into it, which went to the very back of my brain.

KIKI-THE-DEMURE

Horrors!

TOBY-DOG

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)