The Prime Minister's mansion. The narrator enters and finds the Prime Minister holding a new pet. The pet is a pheasant, and the narrator is afraid that the bird will kill him. He asks the bird to stay away from him, but the bird jumps into his arms and greets him as the "pet." The narrator is so impressed by the bird's beauty that he declares that he will not let anyone "disgrace" him. The bird, he says, is "beautiful and energetic" and is also "elegant and exquisite." He praises the bird for its beauty and praises the man who is taking a bath with the bird. He is jealous of the man's body, but he is not a pervert.