"I say, what larks!" she exclaimed. Then she said suddenly: "What a glorious piano. When did mumsie buy it?"
"Your mother didn't buy it," said Maureen. "It was Colonel Herbert who bought it and gave it to me."
"That's another of your lies," said Daisy. "All right; let's see what it sounds like."
She could hardly play a note of music, but she could pound wrong notes and crashing chords to any extent. Henrietta stood by her, smiling.
"How," said Henrietta, "you shall play my accompaniments. I have a great voice."
She set to work with great fervour, Daisy improvising the accompaniment. Her song was one just then very much in vogue: "Cheer Up; Never Say Die!" The partly cracked, untrue voice, the hopeless accompaniment, brought the gentlemen, who were all musical, out of the dining-room.
"Good heavens!" said Colonel Herbert. "Maureen's piano will be broken if that sort of thing goes on."
They entered the room long before they were expected. The Colonel said with extreme politeness to the two Mostyns: "Thank you for your performance. Now may we have the pleasure of a song from Maureen."
Maureen immediately sat down and sang the songs "dear Colonel" loved best. Her voice was gaining in power and richness every day. Dominic stood by and turned the pages for her, but suddenly a burst of giggling in a distant part of the room caused him to leave his place. He went up to the two girls, who were choking and stuffing their handkerchiefs into their mouths.
"If you wish to laugh, will you go outside," he said. "We want to listen to Maureen."