Maudie looked at Julia. As usual, Julia answered for Maudie. Regina herself was full of suppressed eagerness. "Well, if you really wish us to tell you exactly what we do want, mother," said Julia, "we will put it in a nutshell. We want father to give us an allowance." "A decent allowance," put in Maudie. "Yes, yes, dears; yes, yes," murmured Regina, who had prepared herself for an unfolding of great schemes, such as would have swayed her at her girls' age. "The kind of allowance," Julia went on, "that he ought to give to girls of our age and position--that is to say, of _our_ age and _his_ position. Then we sha'n't go making sillies of ourselves; we shall know how to cut our coat according to our cloth." "And how much do you think such an allowance ought to be?" Regina inquired. "Oh, about a hundred a year each," said Julia. "A hundred a year? That's a very ample allowance. I never spend more than that myself." "Well, mother, it just depends on what you want us to be. If you want us to be smart, well-dressed girls with some position in the world, we couldn't do it under. We have talked it over thoroughly with French girls who know what society is, and with English girls of the same sort, and they all say that a hundred a year is the least a girl can dress herself decently on." "And that would include--?" Regina questioned. "It would include our clothes, our club subscriptions--" "Your what?" "Our club subscriptions." "Oh, you are going to join a club, are you?" "Of course. You have a club, mother. We want some place where we can rest the soles of our feet when we are in London. It isn't as if you lived right in Mayfair, you know." "No, no; you are quite right. I have no objection to your joining a club, or doing anything else that is reasonable. So it would include your club subscriptions?" "Oh yes, it would have to do that. And our personal expenses. We shouldn't have to look to father for any money other than an occasional present which he might like to give us if we were good, or if he could afford it; or on some special occasion." "I see." "Then we should like to have--er--er" and here Julia stopped short and eyed her mother with a certain amount of apprehension. "Well, go on, my darling. You would like to have what?" "We should like to have a sitting-room of our own." "Oh!" "To which," Julia went on, emboldened by her mother's mild expression of face, "to which we could ask our friends without upsetting the house, and--and--and--" "Go on," said Regina. "Well, you see, most girls nowadays have an At Home day of their own--just for their own friends, irrespective of their mothers." "I haven't time for an At Home day," said Regina. "I used to have one, but I gave it up when you went to Paris." "I think that was rather foolish of you, mother," said Julia. "A woman is nothing nowadays if she doesn't have an At Home day. I don't quite see myself what all your work brings you." "Brings me?" echoed Regina.