"Because that would very quickly degenerate into mother's At Home day, and you know what mother's At Home day means--seven women, two girls, and half a man. No, if we have an At Home day of our own, it must be in our own room. I'll tell you what we'll do, Maudie, we'll go up to town and choose a little piano somewhere, the kind of piano that you see in the Army and Navy Stores' list as suitable for yachts, and we'll pay for it out of our allowance." "But we can't." "Yes, we can. We can take three years to pay for it. If we spend thirty pounds on a piano, that's quite enough. People can't walk into your room and ask you whether your piano cost thirty pounds or ninety pounds. It wouldn't be very much out of our allowance for each of us to pay fifteen pounds in three years--only five pounds a year--then the piano will be ours." "And suppose one of us gets married?" asked Maudie. "Well, if one of us gets married, she must leave it for the other one." "And the other one?" "Well, if the other one gets married, she must leave it for the use of the home." "Oh, I see." "Well," said Julia, briskly, putting down the book that she held in her hand, "let us go into the playroom and just cast our eyes over its capabilities." So the two girls went off to their old playroom, which was just as they had left it when they had departed for their school in Paris two years before. "It's a good shape," said Julia. "That bow window and those two little windows on that side give it great possibilities. We ought to have a cosy corner there." "That will cost five-and-twenty guineas," said Maudie. "Oh no; I mean a rigged-up cosy corner. We'll take in _Home Blither_ for a few weeks. We are sure to get an idea out of that." "I've never," remarked Maudie, "seen anything about a cosy corner in _Home Blither_ that did not combine a washstand with it. We don't want a washstand, Julia." "No, not in this room--certainly not. I propose that we have a delicate French paper with bouquets of roses--perhaps a white satin stripe with bouquets of roses tied up with delicate blue or mauve ribbons. That will give us an interesting background to work upon." "Then for the curtains?" said Maudie. "Well, for the curtains I should have--well, now, what should I have? Well, I'll tell you. I should have chintz." "I shouldn't; I should have cretonne. It will look warmer." "We don't want to look warm; we want to look dainty. Or we might have lace curtains." "Yes, we might. And we might have those lovely dewdrops to hang in front of the window, but of course it looks into the garden, and it would be rather a pity to shut the garden out in any way." "Yes," said Julia. "A little desk there," she went on; "white wood, you know, the kind of thing that you get in the High Street all ready for painting, or poker work. We might sketch all over it, or get our friends to autograph it." "Autograph it?"