"It's my birthday," she said in explanation. "I've been having a good time with my dolls." She smiled as she saw that he was holding out a little bunch of violets.
"For you!" he said.
"You must really stop this sort of thing, sir, or I shall be very angry!" But she took them and pressed them to her face.
"They look very meagre among all this great horticultural display," said Von Barwig regretfully.
"They came from the heart and I love them," she said as she fastened them in her corsage.
"Well, now we begin," he said as he took out the lead pencil that he always used as a baton. "There must be progress to-day."
He opened the piano and she sat down and looked at the music he placed there for her. He had chosen a well-known exercise, a Czerny; not a difficult one, but requiring some technique to play with precision.
"Come, begin!" and she rattled off at a 6-8 allegretto, the music which was intended to be played in three-quarter andante.
"Very pretty," commented Von Barwig, "very pretty indeed, but you finish before you commence!"
"That's the rate at which I'm thinking," said Hélène. "When I think rapidly I play rapidly. My thoughts can only be described as presto."