“’Scuse me, Carolyn. I felt affectionate and had to make up a nickname.”
“You are excused. Really, we might have made some little names of our own to call each other by. Wouldn’t it be fun?”
Betty looked mischievously at Kathryn. “We were talking of nicknames this afternoon, Kathryn and I.”
“Betty!”
Carolyn looked from one to another. “You have some secret. That is mean, to leave out your old and tried friend Carolyn.”
“Oh, it wasn’t anything, Carolyn, only I’m joking Kathryn about a nickname she doesn’t like.”
“I’m not so sure now but I do like it,” Kathryn replied, taking up Betty’s half explanation. “Tell Carolyn if you want to.”
“Not all of it?”
“Yes, what Peggy is supposed to have said.”
Upon this permission from Kathryn, Betty explained that a speech of Peggy’s had been repeated by Mathilde to Kathryn and how the gypsy reference had been interpreted. “Do you think that Peggy Pollard would be likely to say anything unkind about Kathryn?” Betty asked in concluding.