Katherine.  Where is Daddy?

Olive.  Gone.

Katherine.  When?

Olive.  Oh! only just, and Mr. Steel went after him like a rabbit. [The music stops] They haven’t been paid, you know.

Katherine.  Now, go up at once.  I can’t think how you got down here.

Olive.  I can. [Wheedling] If you pay them, Mummy, they’re sure to play another.

Katherine.  Well, give them that!  One more only.

     She gives Olive a coin, who runs with it to the bay window,
     opens the aide casement, and calls to the musicians.

Olive.  Catch, please!  And would you play just one more?

     She returns from the window, and seeing her mother lost in
     thought, rubs herself against her.

Olive.  Have you got an ache?

Katharine.  Right through me, darling!

Olive.  Oh!

     [The musicians strike up a dance.]

Olive.  Oh!  Mummy!  I must just dance!

She kicks off her lisle blue shoes, and begins dancing.  While she is capering Hubert comes in from the hall.  He stands watching his little niece for a minute, and Katherine looks at him.

Hubert.  Stephen gone!

Katherine.  Yes—­stop, Olive!

Olive.  Are you good at my sort of dancing, Uncle?

Hubert.  Yes, chick—­awfully!

Katherine.  Now, Olive!

     The musicians have suddenly broken off in the middle of a bar. 
     From the street comes the noise of distant shouting.

Olive.  Listen, Uncle!  Isn’t it a particular noise?

Hubert and Katherine listen with all their might, and Olive stares at their faces.  Hubert goes to the window.  The sound comes nearer.  The shouted words are faintly heard:  “Pyper——­ war——­our force crosses frontier—­sharp fightin’——­pyper.”

Katherine. [Breathless] Yes!  It is.

     The street cry is heard again in two distant voices coming from
     different directions:  “War—­pyper—­sharp fightin’ on the
     frontier—­pyper.”

Katherine.  Shut out those ghouls!

As Hubert closes the window, nurse Wreford comes in from the hall.  She is an elderly woman endowed with a motherly grimness.  She fixes Olive with her eye, then suddenly becomes conscious of the street cry.

Nurse.  Oh! don’t say it’s begun.

     [Hubert comes from the window.]

Nurse.  Is the regiment to go, Mr. Hubert?

Hubert.  Yes, Nanny.

Nurse.  Oh, dear!  My boy!

Katherine. [Signing to where Olive stands with wide eyes] Nurse!