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“Oh, tell me all about them,” demanded Nan. “Why, Florrie Hamilton, to think you’ve never said a word about your wonderful experiences! I love to hear about foreign countries from people who have really been there. Please just talk–and I’ll listen and ask questions.”

Florrie did talk. I’m not sure whether she or Nan was the more surprised to find that she could talk so well and describe her travels so brightly and humorously. The afternoon passed quickly, and when Florrie went away at dusk, after a dainty tea served up in Nan’s room, it was with a cordial invitation to come again soon.

“I’ve enjoyed your visit so much,” said Nan sincerely. “I’m going down to see you as soon as I can walk. But don’t wait for that. Let us be good, chummy friends without any ceremony.”

When Florrie, with a light heart and a happy smile, had gone, came Maude, sunburned and glowing from her picnic.

“Such a nice time as we had!” she exclaimed. “Wasn’t I sorry to think of you cooped up here! Did Florrie come?”

“One Florrie did. Maude, you addressed that note to Florrie Hamilton today instead of Florrie Hastings.”

“Nan, surely not! I’m sure–“

“Yes, you did. And she came here. Was I not taken aback at first, Maude!”

“I was thinking about her when I addressed it, and I must have put her name down by mistake. I’m so sorry–“

“You needn’t be. I haven’t been entertained so charmingly for a long while. Why, Maude, she has travelled almost everywhere–and is so bright and witty when she thaws out. She didn’t seem like the same girl at all. She is just perfectly lovely!”

“Well, I’m glad you had such a nice time together. Do you know, some of the girls were very much vexed because she wasn’t asked to the picnic. They said that it was sheer rudeness not to ask her, and that it reflected on us all, even if Patty and Wilhelmina were responsible for it. I’m afraid we girls at Miss Braxton’s have been getting snobbish, and some of us are beginning to find it out and be ashamed of it.”

“Just wait until school opens,” said Nan–vaguely enough, it would seem. But Maude understood.

However, they did not have to wait until school opened. Long before that time Winboro girlhood discovered that the Wallace girls were taking Florrie Hamilton into their lives. If the Wallace girls liked her, there must be something in the girl more than was at first thought–thus more than one of Miss Braxton’s girls reasoned. And gradually the other girls found, as Nan had found, that Florrie was full of fun and an all-round good companion when drawn out of her diffidence. When Miss Braxton’s school reopened Florrie was the class favourite. Between her and Nan Wallace a beautiful and helpful friendship had been formed which was to grow and deepen through their whole lives.

“And all because Maude in a fit of abstraction wrote ‘Hamilton’ for ‘Hastings,'” said Nan to herself one day. But that is something Florrie Hamilton will never know.