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Iris crossed her arms and hunched over herself in her seat To Honoria, it looked as if she were trying to fold herself into nothingness "So without the cello," she muttered

"If I have to do it, you have to do it," Sarah said with a slared at her with all the fury of a misunderstood artist "You don’t understand"

"Oh, believe"I played last year, if you recall I’ve had an entire year to understand"

"Why is everyone coet to perfor for this day?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Sarah said flatly

"About as long as I have been dreading it," Iris muttered

"It is really quite remarkable," Sarah said, "that the two of you are sisters"

"I marvel at it every day," Iris said flatly

"It should be a piano quartet," Honoria said quickly, before Daisy figured out she was being insulted "Unfortunately, there aren’t many from which to choose"

No one offered an opinion

Honoria fought off a groan It was clear she was going to have to take the reins, lest they fall into ht actually be an improvement over the usual Smythe-Smith state of affairs

It was a sad statement, that

"Mozart’s Piano Quartet no 1 or Mozart’s Piano Quartet no 2," she announced, holding up the two different scores "Does anyone have an opinion?"

"Whichever one we didn’t do last year," Sarah sighed She let her head rest against the piano Then she actually let her head drop to the keys

"That sounded good," Daisy said with surprise

"It sounded like a fish voe," Honoria remarked

"I don’t think fish do vomit," Daisy remarked, "and if they did, I don’t think it would sound like – "

"Can’t we be the first set of cousins toher head "Can’t we sireed

"Yes?" Iris said weakly

"I can’t believe you want to do this again," Sarah said to Honoria

"It’s tradition"

"It’s a wretched tradition, and it will take me six months to recover"

"I shall never recover," Iris laht stomp her foot She probably would have done if Honoria had not quelled her with a sharp glare

Honoria thought of Marcus, then forced herself not to think of Marcus "It’s tradition," she said again, "and we are fortunate to belong to a fa about?" Sarah asked, shaking her head