"What are you doing? Talking to yourself?" asked Antonio.
The authoress coloured, laughed, screamed, and confessed she was rehearsing a speech for his Excellency the Minister of Public Instruction, whom she was going to ask for a subscription for her paper.
"Does Mario know? I'll ask him what he thinks of it," said Antonio.
"For pity's sake, don't!" she cried.
"Doesn't it make you shy asking for money?" asked Regina, astonished.
"Why should I be shy? Every one does it. It's not for myself I ask—it's for the journal, which is doing terribly badly. I've asked for a subscription and an audience of the Queen. And to-morrow I must go to my uncle the Senator and learn——"
"I'd sooner die than beg from anybody!" said Regina.
"But why?" asked the other, astounded. "What harm does it do? If you were a literary woman, and ran a paper and had an idea to sustain and to make triumphant——"
"Spare us—my dear goose!" interrupted Antonio.
"And hold my tongue, I suppose? So you never ask for money? Nor take advantage of anything useful which comes in your way? Why do you stare, Regina? It's all a question of getting used to it."