I'll let them cut my ears into strips rather than leave this hiding-place!
KIKI-THE-DEMURE, (invisible)
I can't help hearing, and it's as if I saw everything that's going on. She hastens to close the windows. Someone is running on the stairs. Aïe! Another awful flame—and everything is falling in! Silence now.... I wonder are they all dead? I'll look through the fringes of the chair, though it's risking my life to do so. Ah, hailstones making holes in the leaves! Here comes the rain, in silvery drops, wide apart, and so heavy that the gravel wrinkles up when they fall.
SHE, (heart-broken)
I can hear the peaches falling, and the green nuts too!
(All three are silent. Rain; quivering streaks of lightning; hissing in the pine-trees. The wind howls. A lull.)
TOBY-DOG
I'm not quite so afraid as I was. The sound of the rain relaxes my tired nerves. I seem to feel its streaming warmth on my ears and the back of my neck. Now the hubbub is further off! I can hear myself breathe. The light coming under this bookcase, is brighter than it was. What is She doing? I daren't go out yet. If only the Cat would move! (He sticks out his head, like a wary turtle. A flash of lightning makes him draw it back again.) Ha! It's beginning all over again. Rain by the bucketfuls against the window-panes. Something in the chimney is trying to imitate that far-away rumbling. Everything's falling to pieces ... and She gave me a rap on the nose!
KIKI-THE-DEMURE