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.”