SEVERAL VOICES
Silence!
THE BLACKBIRD
[_On his fagot._] What an awf'ly lovely evening party!
THE SCREECH-OWL
[_Oratorically._] Brethren of the Night--
THE GRAND-DUKE
[_To the_ OWL _next to him._] The meeting-place seems to me particularly
well chosen. The blackest spot, the moldiest tree. To the right, old
postherds. To the left, in the dark between the hollies--the view!
THE SCREECH-OWL
Brethren of the Night!--
AN OWL
There comes the Mole!
SEVERAL VOICES
Silence!
THE OWL
She must have taken, to come here, a route below the roots of the
daisies--
THE BLACKBIRD
The subway, what else?
THE GRAND-DUKE
[_To his neighbor._] Is that the Blackbird?
THE BLACKBIRD
[_Coming forward._] Yes, your Grace. And the two agate balls over there
are the Cat.
THE GRAND-DUKE
I can hear him licking his paws.
THE SCREECH-OWL
[_Resuming._] Brethren of the Night! Inasmuch as everybody here--and we
plume ourselves upon it!--is possessed of the evil eye--
ALL THE BIRDS
[_Chuckling and rocking in their peculiarly disgusting and
characteristic fashion._] Ha, ha!
THE GRAND-DUKE
[_Spreading his wings to demand silence._] Hush! [_All return to their
appalling stillness._]
THE BLACKBIRD
My eye is merely roguish. I am here to look on, you know, without taking
sides,--in the artist spirit, that's all.
AN OWL
If you are not taking sides, then you are siding with us!
THE BLACKBIRD
Oh, I say, what a primitive notion!
THE SCREECH-OWL
[_Completing his sentence.
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