"No, it's Nancy, just Nancy, with Nan for short. I used to like Nannette till Aunt Helen told me about a maid she had in Paris who was very dishonest; her name was Nannette, so now I'm plain Nancy, very plain," she added laughing.
"Oh!" Charlotte looked at her, surprised that she should allude to her appearance in such a light manner. She didn't think Nan at all plain with her starlike eyes and glowing color, but if Nan herself thought so, it was a very outspoken thing for her to mention it. Charlotte was used to taking such things more seriously. Yet under Nan's graciousness and readiness to make friends Charlotte quite thawed out, and before the day was over was laughing and talking as naturally as in her own home while Mr. Roberts nodded to his wife approvingly.
"I knew Nan would be the very one to bring Charlotte out," he said. "Once you get underneath that rigid exterior there's a good sweet kernel to find. I hope they'll see a lot of each other."
This Mrs. Roberts determined they should do, and not a day passed but the two girls were together during some part of it. In the morning they played duets, in the afternoon they read or walked or drove, and more than one night Nan stayed with Charlotte. One afternoon Nan proposed that they should take their books and go to a spot she called the Fairy Dell. "You don't know how lovely it is there," she said. "It's not far, and there are all sorts of things growing; mosses for fairy couches and tiny rose-colored toad-stools for seats, then there are lots of fairy flowers and little gnome-like corners."
Charlotte laughed. "You are so imaginative," she said.
"I get ever so much fun out of it," returned Nan. "I'm glad I am not matter-of-fact. What books shall we take? I have a lovely illustrated edition of 'An Old-fashioned Girl,' that was given me at Christmas; we might take that. Do you like the Jungle books and the 'Just So Stories'? Jean and Jack have those."
Charlotte decided on the "Just So Stories" which she had not read and Nan went to get the book from Jean who was very ready to lend it.
"Where are you going, Nan?" she asked.
"To the Fairy Dell with Charlotte," responded Nan.
"Oh, mayn't I go?" begged Jean.