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?