Barks and Purrs Part 11

Oh, you're a _Cat_. But a horse, and with Her on his back! What a beautiful picture they make, high up in the blue air! To gaze on it, I have to throw my head 'way back on my thick neck. The horse lends her his speed. Now at last, She can race with me when I go off on a mad run.

Sometimes I'm ahead, ears floating back and tongue hanging out like a little flag--the angular shadow of the horse on the road in front. If I follow her, a fragrant dust blows back at me. It smells of warm leather, moist beast, and a little of her own perfume too. The road runs under me, like a ribbon that someone is pulling. Oh, what joy it is to be so little and so swift, running along in the shadow of a great galloping horse! When we halt, I pant like a motor, between the legs of my friend, who snorts and in the kindliest way puts down his fettered mouth and sprinkles me ...

KIKI-THE-DEMURE

I know, I know! The horse "with long mane ashake; hoofs, heavy with tumult; eyes, glimmering white." ...You are the last of the Romanticists.

TOBY-DOG

I'm not the last of the Romanticists. I'm a little bull-dog that came into the world one evening, almost under the feet of a chestnut mare.

She didn't lie down all night long, she was so afraid of crus.h.i.+ng my mother and her puppies. A little bull-dog like me is almost the child of a horse. I lay in the warm straw against her warm flanks, I drank out of the stable pails. I used to get up when I heard the sound of hoofs coming in and I took an interest in the was.h.i.+ng of the carriages, until the day She came and picked me out--_me_, the best-looking, the most snub-nosed, the stockiest of the litter. (_Sighing_.) And there She lies, so dreadfully quiet! It makes me sad to see her with that little cloth still 'round her ankle. You remember when He picked her up in his arms? He held her--and She's a lot bigger than I am--just as if She were a little dog that he was going to drown....

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_bitterly_)

I remember. I was at the top of the stairs irritated by the noise, but curious. He came up and pushed me aside with his foot, as he would have done if a piece of furniture had happened to be in his way.

TOBY-DOG

Is that why you stayed away from this room--her room--for three whole days?

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_hesitating_)

Yes ... and for another reason too.

TOBY-DOG

What reason?

KIKI-THE-DEMURE

Because of the fever.

TOBY-DOG, (_carried away by his love_)

Her fever smells better than other peoples' good health!

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_shrugging his shoulders_)

And they talk of a dog's scent! Truly the convictions of Two-Paws are based upon childish fables. You know of course that fever--

TOBY-DOG, (_in a low tone_)

Makes one afraid, yes.

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_in a low tone_)

Makes one afraid, gives one cold s.h.i.+vers down one's back, distaste for everything and uneasiness all over. One hesitates on the threshold of a room where there is fever, searching fearfully some hidden thing.... She was in bed and burning hot. I looked at her a long time, ready to run, saying to myself: "Who can be with her there--behind the curtains--who is it stifles and torments her and makes her moan in her sleep?"

TOBY-DOG, (_frightened retrospectively_)

There wasn't anyone, was there?

KIKI-THE-DEMURE

No one but He--and the fever. He, the most intelligent of Two-Paws, was leaning over her listening to her breathing, dimly aware of an invisible presence. I overcame my aversion and looked at her. I was melancholy and jealous. He must love her, thought I, to go so near and defend her, to kiss her, imbued as She is with the evil charm. Would He hold me to his heart, if I--

TOBY-DOG, (_imperatively_)

's.h.!.+

KIKI-THE-DEMURE

What?

TOBY-DOG

She stirred.

KIKI-THE-DEMURE

No.

TOBY-DOG, (_alert, looking at her_)

No ... She didn't stir, but her thoughts did. I felt them. Continue.

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_who has recovered his equanimity_)

I don't know now what we were talking about.

TOBY-DOG

The fev--

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_quickly_)

Enough. Don't recall it. Fever is the beginning of the thing one never speaks of.

TOBY-DOG, (_s.h.i.+vering_)

Yes, I know.... I don't like an animal that can't move. You know what I mean ...

KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (_laughing cruelly_)

Nor do I. I can only eat live birds, and as for the tiny mice, I prefer to swallow them, squeak and all....

TOBY-DOG

Why does it amuse you to horrify me? You've a certain vanity that I can't understand. It consists in exaggerating cruelties that are already real enough. You call me the last of the Romanticists, aren't you the first of the Sadics?

KIKI-THE-DEMURE