Page:The Dial (Volume 73).djvu/587
Oh, I have been a badger and a weasel and a hedgehog and polecat, and all because I was dead sick of him. And, thank God! she has got him and I am free. I threw away a part and I threw away a man—she has picked both up.
STAGE MANAGER: It seems to me that it all concerns you two. It's your business and not ours. I don't see why we should delay the rehearsal.
DECIMA: I will have no rehearsal yet. I'm too happy now that I am free. I must find somebody who will dance with me for a while. Come, we must have music. (She picks up a lute which has been laid down amongst some properties.) You can't all be claws and hoofs.
STAGE MANAGER: We've only an hour and the whole play to go through.
NONA: Oh, she has taken my scissors, she is only pretending not to care. Look at her! she is mad! Take them away from her! Hold her hand! She is going to kill me or to kill herself. (To Stage Manager.) Why don't you interfere? My God! she is going to kill me.
DECIMA: Here, Peter. Play the lute. (She begins cutting through the breast-feathers of the Swan.)
NONA: She is doing it all to stop the rehearsal, out of vengeance; and you stand there and do nothing.
STAGE MANAGER: If you have taken her husband, why didn't you keep the news till the play was over? She is going to make them all mad now. I can see that much in her eyes.
DECIMA: Now that I have thrown Septimus into her lap, I will choose a new man. Shall it be you, Turkey-cock, or you, Bull-head?
STAGE MANAGER: There is nothing to be done. It is all your fault. If Septimus can't manage his wife, it's certain that I can't. (He sits down helplessly.)
FIRST PLAYER (who is in the fore legs of the Bull): Come live with me and be my love.
DECIMA: Dance, Bull-head, dance. (The Bull dances.) You're too slow on your feet.
FIRST PLAYER: Although I am slow I am twice as good as any other, for I am double, one in the fore legs and one behind.
DECIMA: You are heavy of build and that means jealousy and there is a sort of melancholy in your voice, and what a folly now I have found out love to stretch and yawn as if I loved.
SECOND PLAYER (who is in the form of a Turkey-cock): Come live with me and be my love, for as everybody can see from my ruff and my red wattle and my way of strutting and my chuckling speech, I have a cheerful appetite.
DECIMA: Dance, dance. (The Turkey-cock dances.) Ah, Turkey-cock, you are lively on your feet and I would find it hard to hide if you followed. Would you expect me to be faithful?
SECOND PLAYER: No, neither I nor you. I have a score of wives.
NONA: You are a disgrace.
SECOND PLAYER: Be content now that you have a man of your own.
DECIMA: You are quick of mind, Turkey-cock, I see that by your bright eyes, but I want to let my mind go asleep. All dance, all, all, and I will choose the best dancer amongst you.
FIRST PLAYER: No, let us toss for it. I understand that better.