"
"Ah well! we are none of us as young as we used to be," was John's
tribute to the power of music. And throwing out his stomach, he leaned
back in his chair and plugged the armholes of his vest with his thumbs.
And now, after due pressing on the part of host and hostess, the other
members of the company advanced upon the piano, either singly or in
couples, to bear a hand in the burden of entertainment. Their seeming
reluctance had no basis in fact; for it was an unwritten law that every
one who could must add his mite; and only those who literally had "not a
note of music in them" were exempt. Tilly took a mischievous pleasure in
announcing bluntly: "So sorry, my dear, not to be able to do you a
tool-de-rool! But when the Honourable Mrs. T. and I were nippers we'd no
time to loll round pianos, nor any pianos to loll round!"--this, just to
see her brother-in-law's dark scowl; for no love--not even a liking--was
lost between her and John. But with this handful of exceptions all nobly
toed the line. Ladies with the tiniest reeds of voices, which shook like
reeds, warbled of Last Roses and Prairie Flowers; others, with more
force but due decorum, cried to Willie that they had Missed Him, or
coyly confessed to the presence of Silver Threads Among the Gold; and
Mrs. Chinnery, an old-young woman with a long, lean neck, which she
twisted this way and that in the exertion of producing her notes,
declared her love for an Old Armchair.
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