"Aha! you know it!" cried Mrs. Bates, gayly.
"Of course," responded Jane. "My education may be modern, on the whole; but it hasn't neglected the classics completely! Gentlemen forward!" she said, with a sudden cry, which sent Mrs. Bates's fingers back to the keyboard; "gentlemen forward to Mister Tucker!" Mrs. Bates pounded loudly, and Jane pirouetted up to her from behind.
"Ladies forward to Mister Tucker!" cried Jane, and Mrs. Bates left the stool and began dancing towards her. Then she danced back and took her seat again; but with the first chord:
"ALL forward to Mister Tucker!" called Jane again; and they met face to face in the middle of the room and burst out laughing. The door opened on a narrow crack, and there appeared Miss Peters's plaintive and inquiring countenance.
Mrs. Bates banished her assistant by one look of pathetic protest. "There!" she said, transferring the look to Jane, "you see how it always is when I am trying to have a good time! Even at my own table I can't budge or crack a joke; with those two men behind my chair I feel like my own tombstone. Lock that door," she said to Jane; "I will have a good time, in spite of them! Sit down; I'm going to play the 'Java March' for you."
She struck out several ponderous and vengeful chords. "Why," called Jane, "is that the 'Java March'?"
She spread out her elbows and stalked up and down singing:
"'Oh, the Dutch compa-nee
Is the best compa-nee!'"
"Right again!" cried Mrs. Bates. "You are one of us—just as I said!"
"Well, if that's the 'Java March,'" said Jane, "it's in an old book we used to have about the house years and years ago. Only, if you bring it up as an example of pa's taste—"