Claire had partially turned back to the piano, and she touched the keys softly, recalling a long-forgotten strain about "Girding on the armor," before she produced her next startling sentence.
"Girls, let us dress up that church until it doesn't know itself."
If the first words had astonished them, this suggestion for a moment struck them dumb. They looked at one another, then at the resolute face of the musician. Then one of them gasped out:
"Us girls?"
"You don't mean it!" from two dismayed voices.
"How could we do anything?" from a gentle timid one.
"But the girl who had found courage to speak before, and to volunteer her opinion as to the disgraced church, sounded her reply on a different note:
"When?"
"Right away," said the music teacher, smiling brightly on them all, but answering only the last speaker.