As they went out to Mr. Bill's car, a shadow by the lilac bushes turned into a man and slunk away, but not before Granny's sharp eyes had seen him slip down the street.
"I'd like to know what that man was doing there," she grumbled. "Tessie, you got the Tear of God in your pocket?" she asked in a hoarse whisper, and when Tessie said she had, that her fingers were holding it tight, Granny's frown changed to a self-satisfied smile. "Then I guess he's welcome to what he finds. There isn't anything worth stealing in the house now, I guess!"
"I'm glad I put on my medal!" exclaimed Johnny. "I put on all my insignia for you, Tessie." He thrust his small chest forward so that Tessie could see for herself that he had done honor to her.
"Bless the boy!" Tessie bent her head and kissed him.
Mr. Bill all but died of envy. He wished that he was a Boy Scout, and then he was glad that he wasn't. A Boy Scout might have privileges, but a man could have hopes. He was not sure what he hoped, but he knew that he admired Tessie tremendously, and that it was amazinglyexciting to be on such friendly terms with a queen. It seemed impossible that only a few hours ago he had never known that there was a Tessie Gilfooly in the world. And now—why now she seemed the only girl in the world!
They had a delightful dinner at the Waloo. Granny gazed around the big room rather awed by the ornate display of rose velvet and gold, the crystal electroliers, and the army of waiters.
"I suppose this is what you'll have all the time in the Sunshine Islands," she said with pride. "Just think of your Uncle Pete, Tessie, sitting down to dinner every day in a room like this and to a dinner like this. I don't wonder he never came home. The good Lord has sure been kind to the Gilfoolys!"
Tessie did not eat much, and she did not talk much. She was still too dazed at what had happened. She could not believe that it was true. It couldn't be true that she was in the dining room of the Waloo Hotel, with Mr. Bill as the host of a family party—a family party of Gilfoolys! Such things never happened to poor working girls. But Mr. Bill's radiant smile and eager attention convinced her that at least he was real.
Gilbert Douglas was with a party of young people at the other end of the room. He came over to speak to Tessie, and tell her that he would call for her the next morning about ten. Mr. Bill yearned to stab him with his dinner knife.When Bert went back to his friends and told them who Tessie was, there were many curious and admiring, and almost as many envious, glances sent toward her. Altogether it was a very pleasant dinner. But Tessie would not loiter over the coffee—not even to listen to the orchestra nor to dance once with Mr. Bill.
"I'd faint," she declared. "I feel all wobbly sitting down. And I want to stop at the library. It closes at nine. And anyway it wouldn't be right to Uncle Pete. We had to have something to eat, but we don't have to dance."
Every one in the big dining room seemed to know who Tessie was when she left, and there was much craning of necks and whispering. The head waiter bowed them out with much ceremony and hoped that Tessie would come again. Tessie was pink to her little ears, and she shyly murmured that she would like to come again.
They reached the library barely in time. The librarian was just locking the door of the branch station when Mr. Bill and Tessie ran up to her. She obligingly unlocked the door and went back with them.
"The Sunshine Islands," she repeated, when she heard Tessie breathlessly explain what she wanted. "I never heard of them."
"They're in the Pacific Ocean." Tessie told her with much importance.
"We have several books that speak of theislands in the Pacific Ocean," the librarian remembered. "But why on earth do you come running in here at this time of night to ask for books on the Sunshine Islands?" And she looked from pink-cheeked Tessie to grinning Mr. Bill, as if she would not produce one of her books until that question was answered.
"Because," dimpled Tessie, who saw no reason why she should not tell—it was nothing to be ashamed of, and she felt that she had to give some reason for taking the librarian back to her library after the door had been locked for the night—"because I've just heard that I'm the Queen of the Sunshine Islands!"
"My goodness!" exclaimed the surprised librarian, and she found Tessie all the books which mentioned the islands in the Pacific Ocean. "There!" she said. "If you read all these you'll learn something about your kingdom. The best book," she remembered with a frown, "the one that tells all about the Pacific islands is out. A man came in after dinner and took it."
"What kind of a man?" asked Mr. Bill, not because he cared but because the librarian seemed to expect something to be said.
"A tall man, young and thin, with rough brown hair and brown eyes and rather shabby clothes." The librarian appeared to describe her client by looking at Mr. Bill and seeing his opposite.
"It must have been Joe Cary!" exclaimed Tessie."It would be just like Joe to learn everything about my kingdom before I can read a word!" She looked vexed.
"Save you a lot of trouble," suggested Mr. Bill. "He can tell you what he learns, and you won't have much time for reading now."
"That's true!" Tessie stopped frowning to smile. "I'll let Joe do my reading for me. That's the way queens do, isn't it?—have some one do things for them? Thank you for the books." She turned politely to the librarian, who was staring at her with unbelieving amazement.
"My goodness! I'm much obliged to you for coming in for those books even if you never read them. I've been librarian at this branch station for three years now, and nothing as interesting as this ever happened. I hope you'll be a very happy queen!" And the librarian drew a long breath. She had never supposed that she would ever tell a queen to her face that she hoped she would be happy. Such things might happen in books, but surely they had never happened before in a real library.
"Thank you," said Tessie, putting out her hand to shake the librarian's lean fingers. "I'm going to try to be a good queen."
"My goodness!" repeated the librarian, as Tessie, Mr. Bill and the books went to join Granny and Johnny. "My goodness, but I'm glad I didn't close up a minute earlier than I did!"
There were no lights in the narrow street when Mr. Bill turned his car away from the avenue. In contrast to the brilliantly lighted thoroughfare, the street seemed darker than a pocket. The city fathers depended on the moon for illumination on certain nights designated by the almanac, and if the moon was dilatory or negligent, that was not their fault. The lights on Mr. Bill's car were all he had to show him the way, but with their aid, he found the shabby little cottage without any trouble at all.
"It's been a very pleasant evening," Granny said politely, as she stepped from the car. "I'm sure we've all enjoyed it, and we have the liver and onions for to-morrow night when we've had time to calm down a bit. Good night, Mr——" She discovered she had forgotten Mr. Bill's name. She was horrified.
"Call me Bill!" begged Mr. Bill in the friendliest way. "I'm such a friend of your granddaughter's—at least I'm going to be such a friend—we belonged to the same family, you know, the Evergreen—that I want to be a friend of yours, too."
"You've proved yourself a friend," beamed Granny. "I declare I'm that tired I'll be glad to go to bed. I'm not as young as I was, and it's a good deal of a strain for an old woman to hear all in one day that her son was a king and that her granddaughter is a queen. Come, Johnny,we'll go right to bed. Good night, Bill, and thank you kindly."
She was tired, and her step was heavy as she went along the walk and up the steps. On the narrow porch her foot touched something that gave beneath her weight. It was soft, and yet it wasn't. Granny drew back her foot, stood still and screamed. There was—yes, there was something on her nice clean porch that did not belong there!
"I'll make a light," offered the resourceful Scout.
"Not with two sticks of wood," objected Tessie, who had run to her grandmother and was staring at the black shadow on the porch floor. "It takes too long!"
"I got a match, silly!" retorted her brother. "We can use matches when we got 'em!"
But Mr. Bill had struck a match, and by its feeble light they could see that the black shadow was the body of a man, huddled on Granny's nice clean porch. Granny shrieked again.
"My soul and body!" she cried. "This is too much!" And she sat heavily down on the step. "I don't like men murdered on my front porch!" she wailed.
"Murdered!" Tessie shrieked, too.
"He isn't murdered," declared Mr. Bill, who had been bending over the body. "At least Idon't think he is. Darn it!" For the match flickered and went out.
"Who—who is it?" whispered Tessie, and she trembled so that Mr. Bill had to put his arm around her. "Who is it?"
"I don't know. He looks like a black man—at least he isn't a white man. And I caught a glimpse of an earring as the match went out. We must get some light!" He looked about for some light, but the resourceful Scout had taken the key from Granny's limp fingers, thrown the door open and turned on the light in the hall. There was a white stream through the doorway, and as it fell on the dark face of the man on the porch, he moved slightly and moaned.
"Thank the good Lord he isn't dead!" Granny stumbled to her feet. "Who are you and what do you want?" she asked the stranger sharply. "I'll bet he was after that Tear of God, Tessie," she said, as the dark head moved away from her, and she, like Mr. Bill, caught a glimpse of an earring.
"Oh!" Tessie's fingers felt for the royal jewel. It was there in her pocket, and she grasped it eagerly. Just suppose she had lost it!
"I'll take him away," offered Mr. Bill. "You don't want him here. I'll take him away."
"Hello! What's up here, Mrs. Gilfooly?" And there was Officer Clancy peering at them. "What's the matter here?"
"Well, Mr. Clancy!" Granny turned eagerly around. "I'm sure glad to see you to-night. We go out for a pleasant dinner with a friend of my granddaughter, who's just learned that her Uncle Pete, my eldest, has made her Queen of the Sunshine Islands, and we come home to find this dark-complected gentleman on my nice clean front porch. I almost stepped on him." She shuddered as she recalled her sensations when she put her foot on the dark-complexioned gentleman. "I couldn't think what it was, but it was him!" And she waved her hand toward the stranger who had managed to sit up, and was staring around with dull eyes.
It was no wonder that Officer Clancy was dazed and bewildered to hear Granny talk so glibly of queens and porches, but he stooped over the stranger, who curled up like a snail.
"Now then, my man, what are you doing here, frightening the ladies out of their wits?" asked Clancy sharply.
The stranger shrank away and muttered something. The words sounded like "The Shark! The Shark!" but Granny thought that her ears must have deceived her. A shark was a fish that lived in the ocean. There were no sharks in her neighborhood.
"The shark! The shark!" was all the stranger would say that any one could understand, although he stammered a lot of words that soundedlike anything but language to the little group gathered around him.
"I can't make head nor tail of what he says!" Officer Clancy exclaimed helplessly. "I'll try him again. Now then, my man, what were you doing here?"
"On my nice clean porch!" added Granny shrilly.
But the man only muttered some more of the unintelligible gibberish jumbled around the word "Shark." Officer Clancy jerked him to his feet, and he stood leaning weakly against the policeman.
"I better take him along to the station," the latter suggested. "He hasn't done any harm, has he? Maybe he was taken sick as he was passing by, and came in to get help," he suggested eagerly.
"He's got a lump as big as an egg on the back of his head," declared Mr. Bill. "Looks to me as if somebody had blackjacked him!"
"That so?" Officer Clancy looked at the head whose black thatch was unlike any hair he had ever seen before. "There is a lump there! I expect that was it, Mrs. Gilfooly. Somebody slugged him, and he crawled up on your porch and fainted. And I bet I saw the guy that did it! I passed a queer-looking chap not ten minutes ago. He was dark like this fellow, and his hair was frizzed for fair, and he was in his bare feet. He was walking fast and looking straight ahead ofhim. I remember I thought he was a fine figure of fun. I never saw anybody just like him."
"Could it have been Ka-kee-ta?" Tessie asked Mr. Bill in a frightened whisper. "He was in his bare feet." She shivered.
"Ka—oh, the chap Mr. Marvin spoke about. I wonder!" And Mr. Bill looked at Tessie.
Clancy's sharp ears heard their whispers. "Friend of yours?" he asked quickly.
"No, not a friend," Mr. Bill answered just as quickly. "Just a messenger of some sort. I think you're right, Officer, you better take this man away."
"I'll take him to the station until his mind clears up and he can tell us how it was. You can drive us over." He nodded to Mr. Bill.
"I would be glad to." But Mr. Bill sounded anything but glad. "Only I hate to leave Mrs. Gilfooly and Miss Gilfooly here alone."
"I guess I'm here!" shouted the insulted Boy Scout. "I guess I know what to do if anything happens!"
"There won't anything happen," promised Clancy. "It's happened. And I'll have the sergeant send a man right over to keep an eye out. I'm sure glad to hear of your luck, Miss Gilfooly." He turned to Tessie and solemnly shook her hand. "You'll make a fine queen!"
"I don't know as I want to be a queen if itmeans finding strange men fainting on our front porch," Tessie murmured almost tearfully.
"Perhaps I'd better stay," suggested Mr. Bill, as he saw how she trembled. "I can sit downstairs and read your books."
"You need your rest as well as we do if you're going to be any help to your pa to-morrow," objected Granny. "We'll be all right with Johnny and the man Officer Clancy sends up. You take that stranger to the station, Mr. Clancy, and lock him up tight. I'll bet he knows more than he's letting on." She peered into the dark face. "Thank the good Lord tattooed noses ain't fashionable in Waloo," she murmured. "Tessie, you ought to go to bed. There's Joe Cary!" She stopped as she heard a whistle up the street. "Joe! Joe Cary!" she called.
"Here!" answered Joe. "What's up?" he demanded as he came up the walk. "You can run along," he told Mr. Bill and Officer Clancy, when he heard the story. "I'll look after things here." When Mr. Bill had reluctantly said good night, holding Tessie's fingers until Joe took them from him, and gone away with Clancy and the stranger, Joe turned to Tessie.
"You'd better go to bed, Tess. You must be all tired out!"
"She is!" Granny answered for her. "We're all tired. I declare it does take it out of a body to have such wonderful things happen. Can youbelieve it, Joe? We had a nice dinner at the Waloo," she said, following him into the house. "And that Mr. Bill is a real pleasant young fellow. My soul and body!" she exclaimed, staring around in amazement, for the house which she had left as neat as wax was now in disorder. Drawers had been pulled out and their contents dumped on the floor, closets emptied in a way that startled and angered Granny. "Somebody's been here, Joe! Somebody has been all over this house!" She stared at Joe. "I expect they came to get that jewel of yours, Tessie," she guessed loudly. "That Tear of God! Thank goodness I didn't put it in the baking-powder can. Thank goodness you got it in your pocket! Well, this is too much!"
"There, there, Granny!" soothed Joe. "They didn't get anything. You trot up to bed, and Tess and I'll straighten things out."
It took some time before Granny could be persuaded to leave them and more time before the drawers were pushed into place and doors shut on the disordered closets. Joe looked at Tessie. Her face was milk-white and her eyes were heavy and tired.
"Well, Tess!" He put his hands on her shoulders so that she would look into his face. "What do you think about queens now? Are you still glad that you are such an old-fashioned, wornout thing as a queen?" He bent to peer into her eyes.
"I don't know," she faltered. She put up her hands to clasp his strong fingers. "It isn't what I thought it would be, if things like this are going to happen."
"All sorts of things happen to queens," prophesied Joe. "You have only to read the papers to know that. The world doesn't need queens any more. I'm sorry, Tessie," his hands slipped from her shoulders to her waist and he drew her to him. "I'm sorry you're one!" His voice was soft as velvet and honey-sweet.
But Tessie pushed him away. "Why, Joe Cary!" she exclaimed indignantly. "If that isn't just like you! You never want me to have any fun! You only want me to go to the Y. W. C. A. gymnasium, and to study shorthand!"
"I don't want you to be a queen!" he insisted stubbornly, his face flushed, his eyes snapping.
"Why not?" she asked defiantly, and when he did not answer her at once, she asked him again, more softly this time. "Why not, Joe Cary?"
"Because," he said, and he folded his arms across his chest and looked at her scornfully, "queens always think they are a darned sight better than other people. I'm one of the other people, but you needn't think you are any better than I am, Tessie Gilfooly, even if you are queen of a lot of cannibals. Queen!" He had nothing but hot scorn for the word.
She turned away from him impatiently. "Younever want me to do anything but work," she pouted. "The idea of talking to me like that, as if a queen wasn't any more than a scrubwoman. I shan't listen to you another minute. I'm going to bed. But before I go, I'll tell you one thing, Joe Cary: if I had heard you were a king, I wouldn't have been so nasty. I would have been proud and glad for you!"
"Tessie!" he cried. But she tossed her head and ran up the steep stairs.
She would not look back at him even if he did stand at the foot of the stairs and call to her. He had hurt her when he had said that queens were no better than other people. The very idea! Mr. Bill never talked that way. Indeed, he never did! Tessie stopped thinking about disgruntled Joe Cary so that she could think of the wonderful Mr. Bill. Oh, wasn't he the most wonderful!
In spite of her tearful assertion that she knew she would not sleep a wink, Tessie was soon dreaming of her new kingdom and of Mr. Bill. Not once did shabby Joe Cary intrude on her dream of glory. It seemed only a minute from the time she crept shiveringly into bed beside Granny, before Granny was shaking her shoulder.
"After nine o'clock, Tessie!" she was calling. "If you're going to Mifflin to get your ma's and pa's wedding license at ten, you'd better get up right away!"
Tessie opened her eyes slowly and reluctantly. She was afraid of what they would see. Yes, there was Granny calling her as she called her every morning. There was the ugly old bureau and the crayon portrait of her grandfather. Of course, she had been dreaming. She wasn't a queen. She had never been at the Waloo for dinner with the wonderful Mr. Bill. She would have to get up and put on her old sateen and go and sell aluminum in the Evergreen basement. She wished she hadn't dreamed that Uncle Pete had died and made her a queen. Such a dream as that made it harder than ever to waken. She had known all the time that it was only a dream. Such wonderful things never happened to poorworking girls. And if it really was nine o'clock, she was afraid to imagine how Mr. Walker would rebuke her for her tardiness. Why had Granny let her sleep when Granny knew that she would be fined if she were late?
"And your friend, that Mr. Bill, stopped here half an hour ago on his way to the store," went on Granny, shaking out Tessie's clothes and hanging them on a chair. "We got to get you some new things, Tessie. These ain't royal. They don't do credit to your poor Uncle Pete, who's been so good to you. Mr. Bill said he stopped at the police station, and the police told him that we were right last night when we said that man on the porch was hit on the head. A friend came for him, and after he had talked to him, he told the police just how it was. The colored man was walking along the street, when all of a sudden he didn't know nothing. I don't suppose he could have upset my closets if he was unconscious, and so long as nothing's missing, I ain't going to worry. But there certainly were queer doings last night. You hurry right along, Tessie. Your coffee's all ready, and I warmed up the liver. No knowing where we'll be for dinner to-night, and we can't be wasteful even if we are queens."
There it was, that most disturbing word! Tessie swung her feet over the side of the bed and stared at her grandmother, who was already dressed in her black alpaca instead of her morningcalico, and whose front hair must have been surprised to find itself out of curling pins at nine o'clock in the morning.
"Then it's all true!" she faltered. She told herself again that it couldn't be true. It just could not be true. She thought she would die if it wasn't true, but she knew it wasn't.
"What's true?" questioned Granny, who was putting the room to rights.
"That I'm a queen?" Tessie blushed hotly, as she asked the question. It was so perfectly ridiculous and unbelievable, and yet Granny talked as if it might be true.
Granny stood still with Tessie's worn blue serge suit in one hand and a clothesbrush in the other. "Of course you're a queen!" The firm confident tone sent a shiver of delight down Tessie's spine. "Didn't your Uncle Pete die and make you a queen? Come down just as soon as you're dressed, Tessie. We ain't got time to waste to-day."
Even when Bert Douglas drove up in a shining touring car, Tessie could not believe that she was to ride in it, although Bert told her that she was, and he for one was mighty glad that she was.
"We have a corking day!" he exclaimed, with an approving glance at the cloudless sky. "And we'll have a corking ride. I'm glad your people were married sixty miles from Waloo. This is just a formality, you know, Miss Gilfooly. Weall know that you really are the Queen of the Sunshine Islands. We don't need any certificates." And he laughed joyously. It was so strange and unbelievable and delightful that he was to drive a young queen to Mifflin and back.
"It's so wonderful that I can't believe it," Tessie told him earnestly, and her voice quivered with the wonder of it. She looked speculatively at the tonneau of the big car. There was no one in it. "Could we take my grandmother, Mr. Douglas?" She raised her big blue eyes appealingly. "She would enjoy the ride. And my brother Johnny? He's a Boy Scout."
"Sure, we can take all the royal family," chuckled Bert. "There's plenty of room, and we'll feel safer to have a Scout with us." He laughed again as he hospitably opened the tonneau door.
Mrs. Scanlon stood at her window and watched Granny and Johnny settle themselves proudly in the car. She saw Tessie take the seat next to the wheel, and she was green with envy from her red hair to her patched black shoes. She had heard the news, and in her heart she wished that she had had a son to run away to sea and be a king. "My Lil would make a better-looking queen than that washed-out Tessie Gilfooly," she thought, as she watched them from behind the skimpy curtain. "Lil's suit was new this spring, and that blue dud Tessie has on is a year old if it's a day.I don't believe it's really true! Such things don't happen! Queen, indeed!" And she sniffed loudly and elevated her long thin nose because little Tessie Gilfooly had come home with some ridiculous story about being a queen.
Jonah, Johnny's dog—a mongrel with a most rakish brown spot on his white face—jumped wistfully around the car. Jonah wanted to drive to Mifflin too. He saw no reason why he should be left at home alone.
"Could we take him?" asked Granny, eager for the family to enjoy the ride as a family. "He'd enjoy it."
And Jonah joined the two in the tonneau.
"Just as well he's going," muttered Mrs. Scanlon. "I wouldn't have no time to feed anybody's dog to-day!" And to show how little she cared about the good fortune which had come to her neighbors, she took her chairs and tables out of the parlor and gave the room a thorough cleaning.
Bert was right. It was a wonderful day—a blue and gold day. There was not a cloud in the sky, nor a care in the car. The road to Mifflin was velvet smooth, so that the drive, as Bert had prophesied, was delightful. It was no time at all before they were in front of the red brick building which was Mifflin's new Court House. But when they went in and demanded a copy of the record of the marriage of John Gilfooly and Teresa Andrews, which had been solemnized inMifflin twenty years ago, the clerk could not find the record.
"That's funny!" he exclaimed. "It was here yesterday, but it isn't here to-day!" He looked puzzled.
"Did you see it yesterday?" demanded Bert, with all the importance of a six-months lawyer.
"Sure I saw it yesterday. A man came in and asked for a copy. Funny thing! In all the time I've been here, no one has ever asked about that license. And now yesterday a man wanted it and to-day you want it." The coincidence impressed him as so strange that he blinked.
"Was he a black man and did he have a tattooed nose?" asked Tessie eagerly.
The clerk shook his head. "No, he had light hair and a big nose with freckles all over it. He was what you would call a blond. With a big nose," he insisted almost as if he thought it was quite unusual for a blond to have a nose at all.
Tessie looked at Bert, and at Granny and Johnny. But not one of them could tell her anything about a blond with a big nose. Granny could only shake her head.
"He must have sneaked the record when I went out to look at the fire," the clerk said indignantly. "Ferguson's store had a little blaze yesterday, and when I heard the fire engine I naturally went to the door. But I can't have this sort of thing,"he added querulously. "I can't have my records stolen!"
"No, I shouldn't think you could," agreed Bert. "And you had better find out who stole this record."
"I shall!" The clerk was quite offended because Bert had thought it necessary to tell him what to do. "I'll call the sheriff right away." And he bustled over to the telephone.
"But—but why should any one steal my father's and mother's marriage license?" Tessie could not imagine why any one would steal a piece of paper. Money or a jewel—the Tear of God even—could be used, but a piece of paper——
Bert smiled at her puzzled face. "Some one might want to make it impossible for you to prove that you are John Gilfooly's eldest child," he explained carefully.
Tessie gasped. "The idea! But whoever would?" She could not imagine.
Granny bristled indignantly. "Well, they can't do that!" she declared. "Not while I have breath in my body to say she is! I guess I know!"
"Sure you do!" And Bert grinned at her.
But Granny wanted more than smiles. She wanted action—immediate action.
"What are we going to do now?" she demanded. "Can't Tessie be a queen unless she has her ma's and pa's wedding license?"
"I don't see why you need any old paper," putin Johnny. "If you want to know about the wedding of father and mother, all you have to do is to ask Granny. She was at the wedding, weren't you, Granny?"
Granny turned to gaze at him with pride. "Bless the boy!" she exclaimed in honest admiration. "Of course I was there! And I can tell the lawyers all about it! That was a bright thought, Johnny, but I'm glad it didn't come to you before. If you'd had it in Waloo we'd have missed a pleasant ride. I can tell you all about the wedding," she said to Bert, and there was much triumph in her voice, "all about the bride's dress and the refreshments and everything!"
"I don't believe that your evidence will be enough, Mrs. Gilfooly," Bert said reluctantly and regretfully, for he would have preferred to tell Granny that her story of the Gilfooly-Andrews wedding would be sufficient to place Tessie on any throne. "You are too near a relative to be disinterested. That's what the court would say," he explained hastily as Granny snorted.
"My soul and body!" She stared at him. "As if I'd lie about my own son or my own granddaughter! But there were other folks at the wedding," she, remembered joyously. "The Hortons, who live over on Olive street, were there. Sophie Horton was Tessie's mother's bridesmaid, and Sam Horton knocked over a piano lamp the night of the wedding and came near burning upthe bride. He'll remember and be glad to tell you that my son John married Teresa Andrews right and proper. And that ain't all," went on Granny, who could accomplish great things when she began little things, "the man who married John and Teresa and baptized Tessie is alive to this day and living in this very town. We've only got to go to the Reverend Townshend's house to hear all about it. I suppose the law would believe a regular minister if it wouldn't believe a loving grandmother," she said to Bert, with a decided tinge of resentment in her hearty voice.
Bert laughed apologetically. "That's fine! But you understand, Mrs. Gilfooly, it is because you are so close to Miss Gilfooly that your evidence wouldn't be sufficient. The court might suspect such a near relative, but the word of the minister who married Miss Gilfooly's parents should be enough for any court."
"I should think so!" snorted Granny, who had nothing but contempt for a court which would not believe a grandmother.
They drove through the pretty streets of Mifflin to the home of Mr. Townshend, which was almost hidden by shrubbery and vines, and the Boy Scout rang the bell loudly. But Mr. Townshend was in Waloo visiting his sister, and the young granddaughter, who answered the bell, had never heard of the Gilfoolys.
"Never mind!" exclaimed Granny cheerfully,for Tessie looked as if she did mind. "We know where to go now for what we want, and that's everything, no matter what you're looking for. You say Reverend Townshend's sister lives on Tenth Avenue South?" she asked the young granddaughter. "Mr. Douglas will just drive us there and hear with his own ears what Reverend Townshend has to say."
"Sure I'll drive you!" Bert said. "That's my job!" And he looked as if he liked his job enormously.
But black luck preceded them, for when they returned to Waloo and drove to Tenth Avenue South, they learned that the Reverend Townshend had been knocked down by an automobile as he was crossing a street that afternoon, and was lying in the hospital with concussion of the brain. And they found, on driving to Olive street, that the Hortons had gone to Vermont for the summer.
"I don't believe I ever was born!" Tessie was almost in tears. Her lips quivered. So did her voice.
"Tut, tut!" rebuked her grandmother. "There were fifty-six folks, as I remember, at that wedding, and it will be funny if I can't find some of them. You don't want to get discouraged at the beginning of anything, Tessie, not if you ever want to see the end of it."
"Why don't you drop it, Tess?" advised Joe Cary, when he heard about the blond man with abig nose, the stolen marriage record, and about the Reverend Townshend who was in the hospital with concussion of the brain. "The Fates seem to be against you! So are some people, I should judge. There is evidently some one who doesn't want you to be the Queen of the Sunshine Islands. Look at last night! Look at to-day! Why do you want to be a queen, anyway?" He asked the question as he would have asked why she wanted to be a salesgirl, or why she did not want to be a stenographer.
Tessie stared at him. The idea of asking such a question! Joe Cary was crazy! And she told him so. "You talk as if being a queen was like selling aluminum in the Evergreen!" she exclaimed indignantly.
"It isn't as decent!" cried Joe, and then Tessie knew, beyond a doubt, that he was crazy.
"You can't stop being a queen if you are one!" she flared.
"Why can't you?" demanded Joe. "Can't you abdicate? Seems to me I've read of several kings and queens who were glad to abdicate. You don't have to be a queen unless you please, Tessie Gilfooly!" He actually did seem to think that being a queen was like selling aluminum.
"Joe—Joe Cary—" she began in exasperation, and then she startled him by bursting into tears—"you—you never want me to have any f-fun!" she hiccuped.
"Oh, great Scott, Tess!" he said helplessly, and he would have taken her in his arms and kissed the tears away, she was so little and sweet and unreasonable, but Granny snatched her from him.
"There, there, my lamb!" she crooned. "You're all tired out. You just come to your old Granny. There's some folks," she said over her shoulder to Joe, "who are quick enough to tell other folks what to do, but I wonder what they would say if they were to find themselves kings."
Joe stared at her, and then he laughed. "I know what I would do," he declared promptly. "I never would be a king! Not for a minute!" He seemed proud of himself—of what he would be.
"Then you'd be a coward, Joe Cary, and a shirk!" Granny pricked the balloon of his pride with her frankness. "When the good Lord puts responsibilities and duties on a body's shoulders, he can't throw 'em off without being a coward and a shirk. What he has to do is to carry them the best he knows how. Now I want you to stop picking on Tessie just because she's a queen. It isn't her fault, and you needn't talk to her as if it was. We don't none of us know why she was picked out to look after those queer folks in the Pacific Ocean, but I guess the good Lord knows His business, and He knows the Gilfoolys. It isn't any crime to be a queen. It's a privilege,and we're all going to enjoy it with Tessie. I don't want to hear any more picking," she repeated sternly.
"All right, Granny," Joe murmured meekly, but his eyes twinkled. "Just as you say. Tess can think she is Queen of England, and I shan't say another word!"
"And about this wedding license, I'll put on my thinking cap," remarked Granny. She went into the bedroom and closed the door.
When Tessie was a little thing and heard Granny talk of her thinking cap, she always visualized the cap as something between the formal Sunday black straw or velvet, and the Monday morning gingham sunbonnet Granny wore when she hung out the washing. And now that Tessie was a big girl, she knew no more of what a thinking cap was like than she had when she was seven, for Granny had never worn one in public. She always closed the door before she put it on.
But as usual, the thinking cap quickly produced results, and in no time at all Granny emerged with half a dozen names scribbled on a piece of paper. They soon found Mrs. Waterman and Mr. Jacob Dassett, who had been at the wedding of John Gilfooly and Teresa Andrews, and could remember the ceremony perfectly. They were thrilled to hear that the inheritance, a kingdom in the Pacific Ocean, of the daughter of John Gilfooly and Teresa Andrews, might hang on their word, and they grew incoherent as they ransacked their memories for recollections of twenty years ago.
"A queen!" exclaimed the astonished Mrs. Waterman. "Can you believe it! And a mighty pretty queen she'll make!" She looked with admiration at Tessie's flushed and dimpled face. "The spitting image of her ma, ain't she, Mrs. Gilfooly? And I tell you, miss, there wasn't a prettier girl in the state than Tessie Andrews when she married John Gilfooly. Ain't I right, Mrs. Gilfooly?"
Granny nodded. "John was a handsome man, too," she declared. "They made a beautiful couple, Tessie. I wish you could have seen them!"
"You bet I remember the wedding of Jack Gilfooly and Tess Andrews!" Mr. Dassett spoke a bit testily that any one should have thought he would have forgotten. "Didn't Sam Horton knock over the lamp and near set the bride on fire? It would have been a bad deal for you, young lady," he smiled at Tessie, "if he had. There wouldn't have been no queens then, you bet!"
Granny's thinking cap produced not only witnesses to the wedding, but also told her where to unearth old Doctor Grannis, who had brought Tessie into the world, and who swore he remembered the six-pound, red-faced mite.
"Well, are you satisfied now?" Granny asked Mr. Marvin, when the statements of her witnesses, duly signed and adorned with notarial seals, lay on the desk before him.
"Perfectly!" But Mr. Marvin did not look at her and smile, he looked at her blushing granddaughter. "Perfectly! The court can ask for nothing more. But you can understand, Mrs. Gilfooly, why we cannot accept the evidence of the interested parties. But these statements make everything all right, and Miss Gilfooly is Queen of the Sunshine Islands." He rose and bowed to Her Majesty. "But according to the terms of her uncle's will, she is to remain here until his personal representative arrives to escort her to her kingdom. And in the meantime—" He touched the button on his desk.
Tessie and Granny held their breaths as they waited to hear what was going to happen in the meantime.
At the whirr of the buzzer, the door, which had been tightly closed opened, and Bert Douglas shot in. He was followed by a man who was not black nor red nor yellow, but an attractive combination of the three colors. He wore a blue blouse hanging over his trousers which flapped around his bare feet. His hair was frizzed and stiffened until it stood half a foot away from his scalp and was adorned with shells. His nose was tattooed in red and blue, and in his hand he carried an ax. At least Granny called the strange weapon an ax. The blade shone like silver.
Granny shrieked when she saw him, and clutched Tessie by the hand as if she would runaway with her. Johnny the Boy Scout stepped bravely before the women of his family and stared at the strange creature, who stood with bowed head and an air of great humility. His humility did not deceive Granny, not for a second. She did not trust him, and she kept a firm hold of Tessie's fingers.
"This is Ka-kee-ta, the protector of the royal person," exclaimed Mr. Marvin.
And as if to prove his words, Ka-kee-ta jumped into the air and clicked his bare feet together before he dropped on his knees before Tessie, and laid the blade of his ax against her shabby brown shoes. Tessie shrank back and caught her breath.
"It is his duty and privilege to accompany the king, or queen, wherever he may go," went on Mr. Marvin. "He came with the Honolulu lawyer, who brought the papers concerning King Pete's death, and the king's will. When he saw Miss Gilfooly he was so convinced that she was the rightful heir, that he gave her the royal jewel, the Tear of God, and it has been difficult to keep him from her until these formalities," he tapped the sworn statements with the notarial seals, "were settled. Now," he smiled and rose, regarding Tessie with amused kindly eyes, "he will protect and guard his queen."
"Oh, my!" breathed his queen, in mingled dismay and excitement. She stared at her guard.
It was Granny who looked dubiously at the protector of the royal person.
"Do you mean he'll board with us?" she asked, wondering how on earth she was going to find room for him in her little cottage.
"I guess I can look after my own sister," declared the Boy Scout, red with indignation, and no wonder. But he, too, stared at Ka-kee-ta. Gee whizz! what would the fellows say when they saw him?
"He will always be near the queen," Mr. Marvin answered Granny, but he ignored Johnny. "I understand that it is the custom in the Sunshine Islands for the ruler to have a bodyguard."
"But who is to feed him and sleep him until this personal representative comes to Waloo?" demanded Granny. "Now that Tessie's left her job at the Evergreen, there won't be so much coming in as there was. And a big strapping chap like that will eat a lot!" Granny shook her head. She did not see how it was to be done. She stepped forward and looked boldly at Mr. Marvin. "I'd like to know just what there is in this queen business for us?" she asked bluntly. "Tessie isn't living like a queen according to my way of thinking. Our house, even if it is small and needs paint, was all right for a girl when she was selling aluminum in the Evergreen, but it ain't all right for a queen. A queen shouldn't live in a house where there ain't any electric light, norno dining room, and no plaster on half the kitchen ceiling—for it fell down last spring when we had the big rainstorm, you remember? It isn't a proper place for a queen at all! And clothes! We all need new clothes with a queen in the family. But where are we going to get them? Are there any wages in this queen business?"
"My dear Mrs. Gilfooly! And Miss Gilfooly!" Mr. Marvin was all apologies. "There are ample funds for anything you may wish to purchase. I could not advance any money until the question of Miss Gilfooly's birth had been settled beyond dispute, but now—" he said something in a low voice to grinning Bert Douglas, who left the room. "It is impossible for me to say exactly what the queen's income will be, but I understand it will be large and generous. From what I hear I should say that the Sunshine Islands are rich and prosperous. The natives will do well by their little queen. And there is also King Peter's personal estate. We will know all about the exact figures when the personal representative arrives. But you are right when you say that the queen should be properly housed. And you could scarcely be expected to provide for Ka-kee-ta on your present income!" He laughed softly to think that any one would think she should.
"I might be expected to. Some folks expect a body to do everything," cackled Granny, mollified and radiant. "But I couldn't do it even if Iam a good manager. I might have trusted Pete to arrange for everything even if the Pete I knew never thought of anybody but himself. He was only a boy, then," she explained apologetically, "and there ain't no boy so thoughtful as a grown man. And this—this—" She looked at Ka-kee-ta, who stood just behind Tessie, the blade of his ax glittering beside his bushy head. "He was Pete's friend?" she asked uncertainly.
"The protector of the royal person. The privilege is inherited in his family. I believe it descends from father to son. Miss Gilfooly will doubtless find many strange customs in the islands. There are old traditions in all countries, you know, and the people guard them jealously. Ah," as Bert returned and placed a check before him. He wrote his name, carefully blotted it, and handed the check to Tessie.
Before Tessie could look at it, Granny had it in her fingers. If Ka-kee-ta was protector of the royal person Granny proposed to be the keeper of the royal purse.
"My soul and body!" she exclaimed when she saw the figures. "The good Lord sure has a friendly feeling for the Gilfoolys! We'll be able to board Ka-kee-ta and his ax at the Waloo Hotel. I'll be glad to move. It's mortifying to the Gilfooly pride to have newspaper reporters and newspaper photographers pointing out all the shabby places in the house. You'll let us know, Mr.Marvin, when that special representative comes to town? Tessie and I'll be getting ready for him."
"I'll let you know," promised Mr. Marvin. "And may I say," he took Tessie's little hand, "may I say that, in all my career as a lawyer, I never had a more romantic nor more interesting case than this. Most romantic and most interesting!" he repeated. "If you need any advice or any help, do not hesitate to call on us. Mr. Douglas will be glad to be of service to you at any time." He looked at Mr. Douglas, who had turned a delighted crimson at being assigned to such romantic and interesting service.
"I'll be glad to do anything I can!" he stammered.
"That's real kind," smiled Granny, while Tessie flushed and told him he was real kind, too. "You might go over to the Waloo and pick out a good room for us and one for Ka-kee-ta, while Tessie and I think about clothes. We can't appear in public in what we got. They wouldn't do credit to Pete. And these newspaper men would be sure to photograph us in our worst. We'll have to keep dressed up all the time now."
If she lives to be a thousand, Tessie Gilfooly will never forget the day she spent shopping in the Evergreen. It was so vastly different from the days she had spent in the Evergreen selling aluminum.
"Get everything you want and what a queen should have," Mr. Kingley had said, even before he saw the check Mr. Marvin gave Tessie. "Shoes and hats and everything. Miss Morley will help you." And he sent for Miss Morley, who went to New York every month and had been to Paris twice, and so would know what queens should wear.
Tessie was considerably in awe of Miss Morley with her black hair swirled around her head, her face delicately painted, her black canton crepe—no cheap black sateen for Miss Morley—the latest thing in frocks. But Miss Morley was looking at her with such frank admiration that she dared to smile shyly as she blushed.
"It's awfully kind of you to help me," she even dared to say.
"I'll be glad to help you." Miss Morley smiled, too. "I never dressed a queen before, and it will be great fun. We'll begin at the very beginningbecause I expect that your underthings are no more royal than your outside clothes."
"I've always wanted silk things," apologized Tessie, her hands fluttering among the soft flesh-colored crepes and satins. She loved them. She wanted them all. She longed to feel the touch of them on her slim little body which had known only coarse cotton.
But Miss Morley pushed the lovely things contemptuously away. She even tilted her long aristocratic nose at them.
"They're all right for silly shopgirls and cheap persons," she declared scornfully, "but what a queen wants—oh, Rose, haven't you any linen, fine and sheer, hand-sewed and hand-hem-stitched?"
And when Miss Rose Beacon of the lingerie had produced a special box in which was linen, soft and fine, and enriched with much dainty hand-work, she drew a long breath.
"There!" She pushed the cobwebby things towards Tessie. "That's what queens wear!" She said it as positively as if she had dressed a queen every day of her life.
"But—" faltered Tessie, looking longingly at the flesh-colored satins and crepes.
"Half a dozen sets of these, Rose," ordered Miss Morley. "And as many gowns."
"And half a dozen sets of the satin, too," whispered Tessie, the minute Miss Morley turned herback. "I've always wanted silk underclothes, and now I'm going to have some even if all queens don't wear them. I guess I can afford them!"
It was the same all through the store. Tessie found what she had coveted and sighed over was not proper for a queen. She had to buy flat-heeled broad-toed shoes for walking, instead of the narrow-toed high heels for which her soul yearned.
"High heels for dress, low heels for the street. Don't ever make the mistake of wearing high heels on the street, Miss Gilfooly," advised Miss Morley. "They'll make you look cheap and common."
"No, ma'am," Tessie murmured meekly, but she privately resolved to wear her high heels when and where she pleased. Miss Morley would not be with her always. And how could high heels make any girl look cheap and common? They looked expensive and fine to Tessie's big blue eyes.
Miss Morley would not let her wear lace stockings with her street shoes, but demanded a plain heavy silk. The dark blue crepe frock which was finally chosen to cover the dainty camisole and plain dark blue bloomers, was as simple as a frock could be, but it was a French model and it made Tessie a very different girl from the one who had worn the old black sateen.
"Now," remarked Miss Morley when half adozen frocks had been chosen, always the plainest and the simplest, "we'll go up to the third and have your hair dressed."
"I can do my own hair," Tessie exclaimed eagerly. She was aghast at the amount of money she had spent. Who ever would suppose that such plain things would cost so much?
"I said dressed," smiled Miss Morley. "You can do your hair like the shopgirls," she seemed to have a vast contempt for the way shopgirls dressed and did their hair, "but what you want is a simple coiffure—something royal!"
She told the astonished head of the hairdressing department what she thought would be simple and royal, and she stood beside Tessie while Mrs. Nelson took the buns from Tessie's ears, and redressed her hair in simple waves. Tessie had pretty hair with a soft natural curl in it, and she had a well-shaped head, although she had very successfully concealed that fact with her buns and her rolls. But the clever professional fingers made the most of her wavy hair and of the shape of her head.
"There!" Miss Morley approved of the result if Tessie did look at it a bit doubtfully and wonder if it could be all right. "Now for a manicure!"
When Miss Morley at last took Tessie down to show Mr. Kingley what could be done by the Evergreen, they met Mr. Bill on the threshold.He was trying to talk to Ka-kee-ta, who had reluctantly consented to wait for his queen in the office, and who only had grunts in answer to Mr. Bill's questions. Mr. Bill looked at Miss Morley and at Tessie. And he looked again at Tessie.Wasit Tessie? Tessie blushed and dimpled.
"Well, I'll be darned!" he exclaimed unbelievingly. "If it isn't Queen Teresa! You certainly make one sweet peach of a queen!" He was quite scarlet and somewhat incoherent in his admiration.
"Clothes do make a difference, don't they, Mr. Bill?" asked Miss Morley, proud of what she had made of Tessie. "She looks quite smart now, doesn't she? I've been working over her all morning."
"Good work!" approved Mr. Bill. "I'll say she looks all right!" And his hearty admiration deepened the color in Tessie's cheeks as well as in his own face. Imagine Mr. Bill saying that Tessie Gilfooly looked all right! No wonder Tessie's face was pink, and her eyes shone.
Mr. Kingley admired Tessie also and told Miss Morley that she had done well—remarkably well.
"I knew the Evergreen could outfit a woman for any position," he said with great satisfaction. "You selected other garments than what she is wearing?"
"You said to fit her out appropriately but notfoolishly." Miss Morley repeated the orders she had received. "I have chosen a couple of afternoon frocks, dinner gowns and evening gowns and a little jersey and a serge for day wear."
"And hats?" suggested Mr. Kingley. "A queen can't wear her crown all the time." And he laughed at his joke.
"And hats." Miss Morley was polite enough and clever enough to laugh with him. "And shoes and everything. She has a very complete little outfit."
"That's good. That's very good. You might collect the gowns and hats, Miss Morley, and make a little exhibition of them to-morrow before they are delivered. Miss Gilfooly can wait a day longer for them, and our customers will be interested in a royal wardrobe. Have Miss Lee run a little story in theGazette. It isn't every store," he told them proudly, "that could fit out a queen at a moment's notice. You arrange a little exhibition, Miss Morley, and we'll invite Waloo to come and see it. You'll like that, my dear," he told Tessie, who was not sure that she would like it at all.
Joe Cary, bringing a message to Mr. Kingley from Mr. Maltby, the assistant advertising manager, who had been discharged from his jury,most certainly did not like it and he dared to say so.
"Your clothes belong to you, Tess. Don't you make a show of them," he advised in a whisper.
Mr. Kingley went on talking, and he sounded as though he had heard Joe's whisper, although he never looked at Joe.
"A queen owes that sort of thing to her people. They want show and celebration and pageants in return for their money. You must expect that now you are a queen," he told Tessie.
"Huh," sniffed Joe, and he spoke louder than perhaps he meant to speak, for Mr. Kingley looked at him.
"What did you say, Cary?" he asked sharply.
"Here are those proofs from theGazettefor the wash-goods sale," he said. "And as for queens and kings, the fewer there are, the better the world will be."
"This is no place for anarchism, Cary," Mr. Kingley told him coldly. "Go and tell Mr. Maltby I want to see him at once. And, Cary, you might make a little sketch of Miss Gilfooly as she is now and Maltby can run it with a line—'Royalty Clothed by the Evergreen'—under it. It will please the people, my dear. They'll like to come and buy where queens buy," he said shrewdly.
"Huh!" muttered Joe. "Don't you let themmake a monkey of you for the old Evergreen, Tess," he whispered, as he went for his pencil and drawing board, after he had mastered his impulse to "punch old Kingley in the snout."
But Tessie never heard him. Joe and his mutters were an old story, but a new and very fascinating tale was the admiration of Mr. Bill and his father. She gladly agreed to everything that Mr. Kingley suggested.
"Of course," went on Mr. Kingley, with the zeal of an artist who wanted his work to be quite perfect, "of course you don't know anything about royal etiquette."
"Perhaps I could get a book in the book department," suggested Tessie meekly. Mr. Kingley was right. She knew absolutely nothing of how a queen should conduct herself, but if the Evergreen could clothe royalty, surely it could tell a queen how to behave.
Mr. Kingley shook his head. He did not believe there was such a volume among the thousands of books in the big department. Miss Morley shook her head, too. Mr. Bill just stood and stared at Tessie.
"There's old Madame Cabot!" suggested Miss Morley suddenly. "She was presented at court when she was a girl, and her uncle was minister to Italy. I read it in theGazettein the story on her seventieth birthday. She could tell Miss Gilfoolythe way the Queen of Italy did things. I should think that would help her."
"It undoubtedly would help her. You are very resourceful, Miss Morley—very resourceful." And Mr. Kingley showered Miss Morley with his august approval. "Bill, call up your mother and ask her to arrange to take Miss Gilfooly to see Madame Cabot as soon as possible."
"Shouldn't Madame Cabot call on the queen?" Mr. Bill did not want to take his eyes from Tessie to call up any one. He was perfectly satisfied to let matters remain as they were.
"Madame Cabot is an old lady, and under the circumstances I am sure that our queen will waive etiquette and go to her. It will be a great privilege to have her help. Madame Cabot is a great lady."
"I know!" Tessie was faint and breathless at the mere thought of going to see Madame Cabot. Tessie knew the aristocratic old lady by sight, but she had never sold her so much as a kitchen spoon. She was a little awed at the prospect of talking to her as queen to queen, but she bravely lifted her head and looked at Mr. Kingley. "It will be awfully kind of her to help me. I don't know anything," she admitted with a rosy shame which was adorable—at least, Mr. Bill thought it was adorable. "I had to leave school before I graduated from the high."
"You can learn. You can have teachers and learn," advised Mr. Kingley. "And Madame Cabot can help you if she will."
"If she only will!" breathed Miss Morley, and for the first time since she had been with Tessie, she seemed envious. She had not envied Tessie her new clothes nor her throne, but she did seem to envy her the possibility of a talk with Madame Cabot. "She knows! She has the most perfect manners! You'll be helped just by looking at her," she told Tessie.
Mr. Bill jeered. "That old dame," he began, but he was not allowed to go any farther.
"My son!" rebuked his scandalized father.
"Mr. Bill!" exclaimed Miss Morley, so aghast that her delicately tinted face acquired a lavender tint.
"Oh, all right," Mr. Bill said carelessly. "Only if you want my opinion, which of course isn't worth a bean to you, you'll leave Miss Gilfooly alone. She's all right as she is! My word, I should think she was! I suppose Madame Cabot is all right, too, but she's old and our little queen is young. What is all right for an old lady might be all wrong for a young one!"
Tessie's pink face grew pinker. She had not a word to say, she could only blush and dimple until Mr. Bill blushed, too.
"You call up your mother!" ordered Mr. Kingley curtly.
Tessie could scarcely breathe when Mr. Bill put her in the limousine beside his mother, while Ka-kee-ta slipped into the front seat, although the chauffeur looked at him out of the corner of a most scornful eye. Mr. Bill's mother was so proud and so haughty that Tessie had never expected to ride with her. Mrs. Kingley had never been in the hardware department while Tessie had been there, and Tessie had had only an occasional glimpse of her when she had been sent up from the basement on some errand. She had never imagined that she would ever be on friendly terms with her, and yet Mrs. Kingley seemed quite friendly. She smiled pleasantly—even cordially.
"And this is our little queen! No, Bill, your father would not want you to come with us! Surely you have work to do here!"
"Take Miss Gilfooly home to dinner, and I'll go back and see if I can find anything to do," suggested Mr. Bill, showing his firm white teeth in an appealing grin.
"Bill! I expect the queen has a dinner engagement." But Tessie hadn't, and she managed to gather breath and courage to say so. "Well, we will see," Mrs. Kingley promised Mr. Bill. "Madame Cabot is expecting us," she told Tessie as they drove away and left Mr. Bill standingsomewhat disconsolate on the curb. "How romantic it is! I expect you are quite excited? It is enough to excite any girl to be told that she is a queen. I remember I saw Queen Mary once—of England, you know—before the war. She was riding in a coach with outriders, and it made Bill and me think of a circus parade. I must say she looked a frump. You are very well turned out, my dear. You look quite as a queen should look." And she frankly approved of the quiet little hat and plain frock Miss Morley had chosen.
"I got them at the Evergreen. Mr. Kingley has been so kind," Tessie told Mr. Kingley's wife gratefully.
Mrs. Kingley smiled knowingly. "I expect Mr. Kingley knows what he is about. It pleased him immensely to have all those stories about you and the Evergreen in the newspapers. I tell Mr. Kingley that's what he lives for—the Evergreen. By the way, don't be nervous if Madame Cabot is a little severe. You must remember that you are a queen and hold up your head," she advised, as they stopped before the old mansion where Madame Cabot had lived for almost half a century.
Madame Cabot was not a bit severe. It pleased her to be interested in this new royalty, and she searched her memory for any reminiscence which would help Tessie.
"But the etiquette of your islands will be so different from anything I have known, that I doubt if I can be of much assistance to you," she said slowly. "Be simple and honest, my dear. That will be your best rule. Don't claim to know more than you do. Your people will understand that you were not brought up to be a queen, and they will not expect you to know their customs and manners. Tell them frankly that you are ignorant, but that you want to learn. That is by far the best way. Don't you think so, Mrs. Kingley?"
"Oh, quite," agreed Mrs. Kingley, unobtrusively pinching herself to make sure that she really was there talking to Madame Cabot about the proper behavior of queens. It was so unbelievable that she had to give herself quite a sharp pinch to be quite sure.
And while the two older women talked of queens and their behavior, Tessie looked around the old-fashioned room and drank her tea from the thin china cups, and wished that the sandwiches were larger, for she was hungry, and of course, a queen would never take but one sandwich no matter how small it was.
"You have been so kind," she said shyly to Madame Cabot, when the audience was over. "I shan't ever forget how kind you have been. And I shall try and remember to be honest and simple,"she promised from the bottom of her grateful heart. She thought she could manage to do that, and she was very grateful to Madame Cabot for so easy a rule. She had been afraid that Madame Cabot would tell her of hard things she would have to do. But any one could be simple and honest.
And Madame Cabot, the great and exclusive Madame Cabot, was touched by her humble appreciation and by the shy wistfulness in her rosy face.
"Bless the child!" she exclaimed quite as Granny might have exclaimed, and she stooped and kissed Tessie's pink cheek. "You must come and see me again. I like young people—especially pretty young girls."
Mrs. Kingley purred. She knew, if Tessie did not, what an invitation from Madame Cabot meant. "I am going to take her home with me," she told Madame Cabot almost proudly. "Just a little family dinner."