First Lion: I wouldn't touch it for the world-- Now what are you doing?
Are you afraid?
Second Lion: Who's afraid?
First Lion: What made you back into me like that and growl when she waved her upper limbs and stepped forward?
Second Lion: Purely reflex action. Do you think she's hungry?
First Lion: For heaven's sake, don't say that. What makes you think so?
Second Lion: She has her mouth wide open and she emits prolonged howls.
I wish she wouldn't move forward so abruptly.
First Lion: And I wish you wouldn't back into me like that without warning.
Second Lion: Perhaps she howls because she's afraid.
First Lion: Whom would she be afraid of?
Second Lion: The man outside who is turning the handle of the picture-machine.
First Lion: He has a red face.
Second Lion: He must be juicy. I could fetch him in two leaps if I were feeling just right.
First Lion: There you go again. You'll be backing me against the bars before you know it.
Second Lion: Can't one stretch when one feels bored?
First Lion: The red-faced man must be the new keeper.
Second Lion: Probably, and she is howling for something to eat. I wonder how long this will last.
First Lion: I wonder. This is worse than the circus with nothing between you and a crowd. What is it now?
Second Lion: She's come nearer again and she is stretching out her upper limbs in our direction. Suppose she's hungry and the red-faced man refuses to let her have anything.
First Lion: For heaven's sake, don't speak like that.
XXX
THE PACE OF LIFE
(AS RECORDED BY THE FILM DRAMA AND TIMED BY A DOLLAR WATCH)
From love at first sight to end of successful courtship, 2-1/2 minutes.
Breakfast, 45 seconds.
Ascent of the Jungfrau, 5 minutes.
A riot, 1 minute, 45 seconds.
A wedding, 1-1/2 minutes.
A conflagration, 55 seconds.
A night of restless tossing on a bed of pain, 35 seconds.
From discovery of wife's faithlessness to attempt at suicide, 50 seconds.
Reconciliation between life-long enemies, 1 minute.
Trust monopolist converted to endow a hospital and reorganise business on a profit-sharing basis, 1-1/2 minutes.
A piano recital, 30 seconds.
A battle in Mexico, 1-1/2 minutes.
A major abdominal operation, 19 seconds.
Establishing identity of long-lost heir, 6 seconds.
Buy your hats at O'Grady's--they're different, 2 minutes.
Getting Central on the telephone, instantaneous.
Central gives the right connection, 2 seconds. (Incidentally it may be remarked that the film drama can never hope to reproduce the most powerful comic device of the legitimate stage. This consists in saying to Central, "Yes, I want two-four-six-thr-r-re-e," the most notable advance in dramatic art since the invention of the inflated bladder.)
Restoration of lost memory and discovery of hiding-place of lost documents, 10 seconds.
Orator sways hostile audience, 15 seconds.
Detailed plan for robbing Metropolitan Museum formulated by six conspirators, 15 seconds.
Twenty years pass, 2 seconds.
XXXI
MARCUS AURELIUS, 1914