Tessie laughed again and kissed her with warm red lips. "Well, it's
true!" she cried triumphantly. "It's true! Isn't it?" she appealed to
Mr. Bill. "And I shan't stir a step without you and Johnny! Of course
you'll go to the islands with me!"
Granny sighed happily. "I was hoping you'd ask me!" She smoothed the
gray hair which had been loosened by Johnny's first-aid treatment and
hung in wisps over her face. "I may be an old woman, but I don't like to
be left out of things. I like to see new things and pretty things as
much as anybody. I'd like to know what Mrs. Scanlon'll say now! She was
bragging just this morning when I hung out the clothes because her Lil's
a stenographer. I'd like to hear what she says when she knows you're a
queen! Queen of the Sunshine Islands!" The words were sweet to her
tongue and sweet to her ears. "But there's a lot to do before you're
crowned, Tessie!" she declared suddenly.
"I should say there was!" But even while she was agreeing with Granny,
Tessie's nose was sniffing the air. "Have you anything on the stove,
Granny? I'm sure I smell something burning!" She sniffed again.
"Oh, it's my liver!" Granny flew to the kitchen to turn off the gas
which was burning the liver. "I forgot all about dinner when I heard the
news," she apologized. "It's lucky I hadn't put in the onions. Then we
would have had a mess. Now then, Tessie, what's the first thing to do?
I'll bet you have it all planned out in that clever little head of
yours." She looked triumphantly at Mr. Bill as if to ask him if he had
ever seen another girl with such a clever little head as Tessie's.
"Say," she said suddenly, "I don't believe I got your name?" That was
true, for Tessie had been so excited when she told Granny the amazing
news, that she had never remembered to tell Granny who Mr. Bill was.
"He's young Mr. Kingley, Granny--Mr. Bill!" Tessie was as pink as a
rose, and she looked a thousand apologies as she smiled at Mr. Bill.
"His father owns the Evergreen," she explained.
"My soul and body!" gasped Granny when she understood who Mr. Bill was.
"My father told me to look after our little queen," Mr. Bill said
eagerly, so that Granny might know why he was present at what some
people might consider a family council.
"That's very kind of him, I'm sure." But Granny's mind was not on the
Evergreen or its kind proprietor. "Tessie," she cried sharply, "that's
why a dark-complexioned gentleman has been walking up and down in front
of the house to-day. If he went by once, he went by a hundred times. He
made me so nervous I almost went out to ask him to exercise on the other
end of the block for awhile, and not wear out our sidewalk, but just
then a fat man with a tow-head and a big nose came up in a purple
taxicab and spoke to him, and they went away together. The
dark-complexioned gentleman had rings of some kind in his ears and a
yellow sash around his waist. He looked like he was a left-over from a
masquerade or something. Dear, dear! It does seem like a dream, don't
it? But what's the first thing we do?" She looked at Tessie for orders.
Already she accepted Tessie's right to issue orders.
Tessie smiled and squeezed the work-roughened hands. "The first thing is
to go to Mifflin and get a copy of father's and mother's wedding
license. And the second thing is to find a record of my birth."
"Tessie!" Granny was all admiration. "What a business head you have!
She'll make a fine queen, won't she, Mr. Bill? And how are you going to
Mifflin?" She looked at Mr. Bill to see if he knew how Tessie was going
to Mifflin.
"Mr. Douglas is going to take me in an automobile. He's one of my
lawyers," Tessie explained importantly. "The old lawyer, Mr. Marvin,
arranged it. I don't see why you can't go with me, Granny--and Johnny,
too. It would be a nice ride."
"Sixty miles there and sixty miles back," chuckled Mr. Bill, much
pleased to hear that Tessie did not care to drive one hundred and twenty
miles alone with Mr. Douglas. "And the country's pretty now."
"That's fine," beamed Granny.
And Johnny the Boy Scout declared it would be fine, too. Johnny was
sitting beside Tessie and staring at her with big round eyes. Just
imagine having a sister who was a queen! Gee! what would the fellows
say?
"Tessie, what's that you got in your pocket?" asked Granny suddenly, for
her keen eyes had seen the end of something hanging from the pocket of
Tessie's black sateen frock.
"The Sunshine native gave it to me." Tessie took the royal jewel, the
Tear of God, from her pocket and dangled it before Granny's astonished
eyes. "It's the sign I'm Queen of the Sunshine Islands. If I lose it, I
lose my kingdom." She laughed softly. She had no intention of losing the
royal jewel. "The people won't have a king or queen who can't show them
this--the Tear of God. That's what they call it."
"Tessie! Ain't it pretty! And your Uncle Pete wore it?" She took it in
her fingers and patted it as she would have patted Pete's fingers if he
had been present--and in a mood to be patted. "And now you'll wear it."
She wiped a tear from her eyes.
"Not until we get those records and the lawyers say it's all right. It
wouldn't be honest!" declared upright Tessie.
"But the native gave it to you himself," objected Granny. She liked to
see the royal jewel around Tessie's white neck.
"Oh, he thinks I'm the queen all right, or he would never have given me
this, but I have to know I am before I wear it. You can keep it safe for
me, Granny, until I do know."
Granny accepted the appointment of custodian of the royal jewel with
pride and pleasure. "I'll put it in the baking-powder can, wrap it up in
waxed paper," she said. "Nobody would think of looking in a
baking-powder can. I often tuck away a quarter or a dime in one. My soul
and body!" She had forgotten that Mr. Bill was not a member of the
family. She didn't remember it until she had disclosed her secret hiding
place, and she looked frightened. Then she glanced at him slyly and
smiled triumphantly. "Maybe I won't put it in the baking-powder can
after all. I've got a lot more hiding places."
"I'll bet you have!" chuckled Mr. Bill. "But I wish Miss Gilfooly would
let father keep it in his safe, or Mr. Marvin take care of it. It isn't
safe to have valuables in a house where there are only women."
"There's a man in this house as well as women!" The Boy Scout bristled
with indignation at being ignored so completely. "I guess I'm here."
"And you're the biggest help!" Tessie hugged him.
Mr. Bill remembered that she had hugged Granny; and now she had hugged
the Boy Scout. Perhaps it would be his turn next. He hoped it would.
"Granny would never have come out of her faint if it hadn't been for
you," Tessie told Johnny proudly. "We just stood around like geese,
didn't we?" she asked Mr. Bill.
"That was one of the first things I learned," Johnny explained with
haughty scorn because they had not learned it. "Every scout has to know
how."
"I expect I should go home!" exclaimed Mr. Bill suddenly, although he
did not want to go home, and he said so ruefully.
"You can stay and take pot-luck with us if you want to. It's liver and
onions." Granny extended the invitation with royal hospitality. "And
I'll open a can of my preserved strawberries. I've been saving them for
a big occasion, but I guess there won't ever be a bigger occasion than
this. Even your wedding, Tessie, won't mean so much to me as your being
a queen. Any girl can have a wedding, even Lil Scanlon next door, but I
never knew a girl who was a queen before. You can thank your Uncle Pete
for your luck. Poor Pete!" she sighed. "He never liked liver and
onions," she remembered sadly. "Maybe we shouldn't have them to-night,
just when we hear he's been dead six months and left Tessie a throne!
Maybe we shouldn't ever eat liver and onions again now we're queens!"
And she startled them all by bursting into tears.
Tessie ran to her, and tried to soothe her with loving pats and words.
"She's all upset," she told Mr. Bill apologetically.
"And no wonder!" Mr. Bill was a bit upset himself at the amazing and
interesting situation in which he found himself. "I tell you," he
suggested, as inspiration gave him an idea, "suppose you all come down
town and have dinner with me? You don't want to bother getting a dinner
to-night; and Dad said I was to take care of you." He grinned at Tessie.
"I can run you down in the car. Come on to the Waloo with me?"
"I ain't got a thing to wear!" But Granny stopped crying and wiped the
tears from her eyes as she reviewed the contents of her closet. "I
ripped the sleeves out of my best dress this very afternoon to cut 'em
over more stylish."
"You're all right just as you are," Mr. Bill told her. "You look
fine--neat as a pin. Just put on your hat and come along."
Granny looked at her black alpaca, which was, as Mr. Bill said, as neat
as a pin, and then she turned questioning eyes to Tessie. "I could take
off my apron," she said slowly, and when Tessie nodded, she caught
Johnny by the shoulder. "But this young man has to wash his hands! Such
fists!" She was shocked at the sight of Johnny's hands. "And your own
sister a queen on a throne! It's a disgrace!" She bustled Johnny to the
kitchen, although he loudly protested that he was going to wash his
hands, a Scout knew enough to wash his hands when they were dirty.
"Well!" Mr. Bill drew a long breath when he was alone with Tessie.
"This is a corker! An out-and-out corker!"
"It's awfully kind of you to take us to the Waloo," Tessie said softly.
"Granny is too excited, and I'm too excited, to get dinner, and we don't
like the cafeteria at the corner. And on our way home we could stop at
the public library, couldn't we?"
"The public library!" Mr. Bill stared. Why on earth would she want to
stop at the public library?
"I'd like to get some books on the Sunshine Islands," explained Tessie.
"I don't know a thing about them, and I think a queen should know about
her kingdom, don't you?"
"I don't think it will make the slightest difference what you know!" Mr.
Bill rather lost his head as he looked into her pink face and her big
blue eyes, which had such dark purple lights in them. "You'd be all
right if you didn't know anything!" he stammered thickly.
"Oh, Mr. Kingley!" Tessie's pink rose of a face turned like magic into a
red rose.
"Call me Bill!" he begged, and his face was red too.
Tessie almost swooned. Call her hero--her wonder man--Bill! She
couldn't!
"As Dad said, we belong to the same family--the Evergreen," Mr. Bill
reminded her ardently.
Put that way, Tessie managed to falter "Bill," and she glanced at him
from under her long lashes. Mr. Bill gasped, and if Granny had not come
in with the washed Boy Scout he would probably have been guilty of the
"lesest" kind of _lese majeste_.
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 amazingly exciting 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!
V
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 the islands 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 I don'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 sounded
like 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 of him. 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 it means 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 you
believe 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. "You never 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!