“In the first place, Kathryn, I don’t believe Peggy ever said it. You know what people say goes with their characters. And Peggy isn’t like that.”
“N-no,” replied Kathryn, doubtfully. “Peggy has always seemed to like me.”
“I think that it was just a hateful twisting of something Peggy did say, or maybe it was just made up. What sort of a girl is this Mathilde Finn anyway? And how is it that I haven’t met her if she goes to Lyon High?”
“Oh, she was out last year, at a private school, but she is coming back. They have plenty of money and Mathilde thinks that she is everybody, you know. She was abroad this summer and was somewhere with Peggy last week. They came back earlier than they intended. Somebody was sick. The girls used to call her ‘Finny’ and I imagine that she will hear the same nickname this year, though she hates it.”
Betty laughed. “If she only knew it, she’s given you a pretty nice nickname at that. Why shouldn’t you like to be called Gypsy? Why, Kathryn, I know a perfectly darling girl, only a grown-up one, that everybody calls Gypsy; and she likes it and signs her letters Gypsy!”
Kathryn shook her head. “To be told that I looked like a horrid old gypsy!”
“You couldn’t look horrid if you tried, Kitten. I’ve seen you this summer in your worst old clothes, haven’t I now?”
“You certainly have,” laughed Kathryn, her black eyes sparkling and her vivid face all alive amusement at the thought of some of the performances in which she and Betty had taken part.
“And do you remember that week when Cousin Lil was here and you did dress up as a gypsy in your attic?”
Kathryn nodded.