The_ CUCKOO'S _call is not
repeated._] Oh, deary, deary me! I am too late! [_Calling._]
Bis! Encore!
CHANTECLER
[_Turning around at the noise._] Eh?
THE GREY HEN
[_Desperately, with her head in the cat-hole._] He has stopped!
THE BLACKBIRD
It was the half-hour.
CHANTECLER
[_Close behind the_ GREY HEN, _abruptly._] How does it happen, my love,
that we are not in the fields?
THE GREY HEN
[_Turning, scared._] Goodness gracious!
CHANTECLER
What are we doing, my love, in the cat-hole?
THE GREY HEN
[_Upset._] I was just taking a peep--
CHANTECLER
To see whom?
THE GREY HEN
[_More and more upset._] Oh--!
CHANTECLER
[_Dramatically._] Who is it?
THE GREY HEN
Oh--
CHANTECLER
Confess!
THE GREY HEN
[_In the voice of a woman caught in guilt._] The Cuckoo!
CHANTECLER
[_Amazed._] You love him?--But wherefore?
THE GREY HEN
[_Drops her eyes, then with emotion._] He is Swiss!
PATOU
A bubble!
THE GREY HEN
He is a thinker. He takes his airing--
CHANTECLER
She loves a clock!
THE GREY HEN
--always takes his airing at the same hour, like Kant.
CHANTECLER
Like what?
THE GREY HEN
Like Kant.
CHANTECLER
Did one ever--! Out of my sight!
THE BLACKBIRD
Trot, Kant you?
[THE GREY HEN _hurries off._]
CHANTECLER
Here's a pretty--Wherever did she learn that Kant--?
PATOU
At the Guinea-hen's.
CHANTECLER
That foolish old party of the crazy cries and the white-plastered beak?
PATOU
She has taken a day.
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