I’d let a thing like that, a tricked-out scheme,

A muddy smear, a smudge of chalk and cheese,

A daub, a patch, a paint-scab, a disease,

A niggled lie, a forger’s fraud,—go hence

Out of my studio to breed pestilence?

No! I will not! ’Tis treason if I spare!

Let go, let go! That finishes it!—

So there!

[He tears the drawing into fragments and throws them down. Tikipu screams with anguish, and falls face-forward, clutching the torn pieces.

Get up, you blubbering booby! don’t lie there