“You do talk in such an absurd way,” said Rita. “But what is it? Out with it!”
“Well, I’ve begun to get an allowance.”
“A what?” said Agnes. “An allowance.”
“You don’t mean a dress allowance?” said Rita. “Yes, that’s just what I do mean; and I’ve got my first quarter’s money in my pocket. What’s more, I’m as rich as Croesus; I have more money than I think any one girl could by any possibility spend. Now, what do you think of me?”
Agnes had been walking on Rita’s other side. She showed her estimation of my upward step in the world’s ladder by running round to my side and placing me in the middle.
“Tell us all about it,” she said, and she slipped her hand through my arm.
“There’s not much to tell. Father thought that—or at least my step-mother thought that I ought to have money to spend on dress, and I have got ten pounds.”
“For a year?” asked Agnes.
“No; for a quarter. I am to have ten pounds every quarter. Think of it!”
Now, Agnes Swan knew quite well that when her allowance was given to her it would not approach anything like that royal sum. She therefore glanced at me and said in a low, pathetic voice, “What remarkably pretty ears you have got, Dumps!”