Part 2

Tessie gave Mr. Bill a shy little smile as she sank into the big chair he pushed forward. Of all the unbelievable things which had happened, this was about the most unbelievable. Imagine sitting in Mr. Kingley's sacred office for a little chat with Mr. Kingley and Mr. Bill! Tessie's head whirled, but she managed to tell them in her soft, pleasant voice that she really knew very little about the Sunshine Islands, but that she would have to resign her position in the Evergreen, because she would have to go to her new kingdom. She spoke a little regretfully of leaving the Evergreen, and Mr. Kingley understood perfectly. He knew he would hate to leave the store even for a throne. Tessie was to see her lawyer at half-past five.

"After hours," she hastily told Mr. Kingley, so that he would know that she was not going to take advantage of her new honor and ask any favors.

"Faithful little thing," beamed Mr. Kingley. "You'll make a good queen. And you're going to the islands at once? Not alone, I hope?"

"My brother John will go with me. He's a Boy Scout!" It would have cheered Johnny's heart to have heard the pride in Tessie's voice.

"But you will need more support than a Boy Scout. The natives of those Pacific islands are cannibals!" Mr. Kingley was shocked to think that Tessie contemplated going to them without an army to aid her. "At least, I read somewhere once that they were cannibals," he said hurriedly when Mr. Bill looked at him in surprise because he _did_ know something about the Pacific islands. He flushed slightly and seemed annoyed.

"Johnny's a good Boy Scout," insisted Tessie. "And Granny will go with us, of course. And the cannibals are reformed, Mr. Kingley. Uncle Pete didn't allow them to eat anybody!"

"I should hope not! Bless me! This is strange! I never expected anything like this to happen in the Evergreen. I suppose the newspapers will give us the front page for such a story. I wonder what the Bon Ton and the Mammoth will say! The world, as well as Waloo, will be interested." He was forgetting Tessie in his delight in the situation, for, as has been said, he was the owner of the Evergreen before he was any one else. "I don't suppose, Miss Gilfooly," he said slowly, as if he were following a train of thought which was dashing through his mind, "I don't suppose you would want to hold a little sale here some day soon, after the _Gazette_ has published the story? Of aluminum, perhaps? I mean--" as his son gave a shocked exclamation, "Dad!"--"for one of the charities of the Sunshine Islands? It would help both of us. But that can be arranged later. I don't deny it would help the Evergreen as much as it would increase, say--the shoe fund of your new kingdom."

"If it would help you, Mr. Kingley, I'd be glad to do it," Tessie told him obligingly, and she glanced reprovingly at Mr. Bill, who snorted scornfully.

"Help me!" Mr. Kingley laughed and beamed at her with more satisfaction than he could put in words. "Why every woman in town would want to buy a piece of aluminum if a queen would sell it to her," he declared. "But we can talk of that later. We'll keep in touch with you--in close touch. And now, suppose you let Bill take you home or to your lawyer's?"

"I don't want to ask any favors," Tessie managed to stammer, although her heart began to thump unmanageably. Imagine Mr. Bill taking _her_ home!

"It's a pleasure to grant them." Mr. Kingley rose to his feet again and bowed to her. "After you've had your picture taken, Bill will go with you to your lawyer's. Help her all you can, Bill," he told his son. "She was one of us, you know, one of the Evergreen family, and we must help her."

"I will," promised Mr. Bill. "I'll stay right with her. Come on, Your Majesty!" He grinned at Tessie. "It sounds like a joke," he said with the frankness of a member of the family.

Tessie raised her eyes and smiled at him. "It isn't a joke," she said slowly. "If it had been a joke, that native with the funny hair and the tattooed nose would never have given me this, would he?" And she opened her left hand which she had held tightly closed, and showed them a pearl as big as a marble. It was threaded on some sort of grass or vegetable fiber and caught in a network of the same lacelike filament.

"Bless me!" exclaimed Mr. Kingley, who had never seen a pearl as large as a marble before. He touched it with his fingers to make sure that he really saw one now. "Do you suppose it is real?"

"It's real!" nodded Tessie. "And it belongs to the King, or the Queen, of the Sunshine Islands. I couldn't be the queen if I didn't have it," she told him, and her eyes were big with wonder, that she was a queen at all.

Mr. Kingley stopped looking at the pearl to look at Tessie. "Imagine giving it to you without proper authority, papers, identification, you know!" It was most unbusinesslike to his businesslike mind. He could not imagine such a procedure. When he did business he had the papers very carefully drawn up before anything passed from hand to hand. Evidently that was not the way affairs were conducted in the Sunshine Islands. "Simple people, aren't they? It must be worth a great deal of money!" He eyed the pearl with the respect one gives to what is worth a great deal of money. It reminded him of something else. "Have you any idea, my dear--I mean, Miss Gilfooly," when Mr. Kingley felt as kindly toward Tessie as he did, it was hard to keep the more informal term from his lips, "what the value of your new kingdom is?"

"The lawyer said the islands were worth hundreds of thousands," Tessie murmured bashfully.

"Dollars?" gasped Mr. Kingley, his eyes bulging again.

"Pounds," corrected Tessie, unconsciously icing the cake she offered Mr. Kingley for inspection. "That's more than dollars, isn't it? I think that's pretty good," she added with innocent pride.

"Good!" He choked over the word. "Take care of her, Bill! Take good care of her," he urged. "My soul, but this is splendid and romantic! I was always interested in romance. I never could have built up the Evergreen as I have if I hadn't been romantic. To think of finding a queen in our basement! Take good care of her, Bill!"

"I will," Mr. Bill promised again. He was far more impressed by Tessie's big blue eyes and the enchanting color in her cheeks than he was by the number of pounds she had just received. Gee, but she was a queen all right! A peach of a queen! "Come on, Miss Gilfooly, and I'll take you home." He drew a quick breath as he discovered that he wanted to have her to himself. He did not want to share her even with his father, who was beaming so benevolently.

"After the picture is taken," reminded Mr. Kingley, faithful to his motto--"Business first." "After the picture is taken. And if there is anything you want in the store, Miss Gilfooly, anything in the way of frocks or furbelows," what he really had in mind was a coronation robe but he did not put the thought in words, "just help yourself. Your credit is good with us. I'll see you again, Queen Teresa." And he laughed and took her hand and shook it. "Perhaps you would like me to put your jewel in the safe?"

"I want to show it to Granny." Tessie closed her fingers over the pearl. "She'll be interested because Uncle Pete wore it. I'll take good care of it," she promised.

"Do!" he begged, and he bowed to her again as she went away with Mr. Bill. "My soul!" he declared, as he dropped back in his chair and stared around him at the familiar furnishings which just then did not seem so familiar. "This is going to be a big thing for the Evergreen! Where's Miss Lee? We must tell the world what was found in our basement!"

As Tessie and Mr. Bill left the office they met Joe Cary coming to the office. His hands were full of drawings to be submitted to the critical eye of Mr. Kingley, who refused to let so much as a sketch of a hook-and-eye appear in any paper without his august approval. Joe stopped and stared. What was Tessie Gilfooly doing up here on the office floor with Mr. Bill, when her place was in the basement? He sensed trouble of some sort and took his stand promptly and unquestioningly beside Tessie.

"What's up, Tess?" he demanded, without any preliminary remarks.

Tessie tore her admiring eyes from Mr. Bill and looked at Joe as he stood there, his hands full of sketches, an anxious expression on his face which was half hidden by the ugly green shade that protected his eyes. Above the shade his brown hair was rough and untidy. Mr. Bill's hair was black and of lacquer smoothness. Joe's coat was old and torn. There was a darn at the upper corner of the pocket. Mr. Bill was a sartorial dream--a joy to his tailor. The contrast between Joe and Mr. Bill was so marked that it was painful. Tessie blushed for Joe. But he was her old friend, and she wanted to tell him the news herself.

"Oh, Joe!" she cried. "What do you think? I'm a queen!"

Naturally Joe would not believe such an absurd statement until Tessie had told him about the lawyer and the native with the frizzled hair, and showed him the big pearl, and even then he looked as if he did not believe it.

"It's a joke!" He glared at Mr. Bill as if he suspected that Mr. Bill were responsible for the joke, which he considered was in very bad taste.

"You remember Uncle Pete?" Tessie went on eagerly. "You've heard Granny talk about Uncle Pete?"

"She said he was lost at sea!" nodded Joe, wondering what connection there could be between Granny's vagabond son and this ridiculous statement that Tessie was a queen.

"And all the time she thought he was lost at sea, he was King of these Sunshine Islands! Can you believe it?" Tessie drew a long breath, for she could not believe it. She looked with shining eyes from the godlike Mr. Bill to the worn Joe Cary.

"No, I can't!" Joe said bluntly. "I can't believe a word of it. What do you mean about a lawyer? Wait a minute, Tessie, and I'll go with you."

"Mr. Bill is going with me," Tessie told him quickly and proudly.

Joe looked at Mr. Bill as if he were measuring him body and soul. He might not approve of the result, but he found nothing to which he had the right to object.

"Of course if you would rather have him," he said, and he turned away with his sketches.

Even if he did take her to but one movie in two weeks he was her old friend, and Tessie would not hurt him for the world. She caught his sleeve.

"He offered first," she said, still a bit overcome with the wonder that Mr. Bill had offered at all. "And his father told him to go with me. And he can go without being docked," she explained in a whisper which reached Mr. Bill's ears even if it was low. "You don't want to be docked, Joe."

"I'd rather be docked than have you get into trouble," Joe declared in anything but a whisper. "But it's all right, Tessie. Mr. Bill can look after you and perhaps he does know more about kings and queens than I do. I don't believe in such things, you know."

"I know!" But Tessie drew a long breath which told Joe that she believed in kings and queens. Indeed, she did believe in them!

"What do you mean, Cary?" demanded Mr. Bill. "Don't you believe Miss Gilfooly?"

"Oh, I believe Tessie all right. Tessie knows what I think of her. But I don't believe in kings or queens. The world doesn't need that kind of thing any more. You can see how it's getting rid of them--Russia and Austria and Germany. It may be all right," he admitted slowly, "if Tessie likes it, but personally I don't see how she can. Royalty is as old-fashioned as hoopskirts and belongs to the same period," he finished scornfully.

"You're an anarchist!" Mr. Bill was shocked, and he moved closer to Tessie as if to protect her.

"I'm a progressive!" Joe contradicted him flatly. "I move with the world, and I don't try to hold it back. But that doesn't mean I can't congratulate Tessie because she has a plaything that will amuse her until she outgrows it, although when I come to think of it, the Sunshine Islands sounds a lot like cannibals----"

"Cannibals!" Tessie was indignant. "Uncle Pete wouldn't be king of any cannibals!" The idea! How dared Joe Cary think Uncle Pete would?

"If you'll pardon me, Miss Gilfooly," broke in Mr. Bill, who disliked the tone of the conversation, and who had no patience with Joe Cary's outrageous ideas--pure envy, pure unadulterated envy, he knew was responsible for them--"we were on our way to your lawyer's when we met your friend."

"Oh, yes!" Tessie turned to him eagerly. His voice thrilled her and made her forget to be indignant at Joe. "But first we are going to the basement to be photographed, you know."

"Basement! Photographed!" exclaimed Joe, who could not find head nor tail to this amazing story of Tessie's.

"For publicity for the Evergreen!" Tessie was pinkly important. "Mr. Kingley suggested it, and I'm glad to do anything I can to help the store."

Tessie spoke with some emphasis, and she smiled radiantly. It was so thrilling to feel that she could help the Evergreen which had been so patronizing to her, although she was far too tender-hearted to have formulated that thought. She only knew that it was mighty pleasant to do something for the store. Tessie did not have an analytical mind. She took things as they came to her and did not stop to question why they came.

Joe whistled softly. "Publicity," he repeated. "Ye gods and little fishes! Publicity! The Evergreen must be served, eh? Ye gods! Run along, Tess," as she stared at him, "and have your picture taken. I expect it will make mighty good publicity for Mr. Kingley!" And he laughed in a way that puzzled Tessie and made her look at him in dismay. What on earth was the matter with Joe Cary?

III

Tessie had her picture taken standing beside the table of aluminum while customers were neglected, and Mr. Walker quite forgot to reprove the clerks, who were attentive to but one person--Queen Teresa. He stood on tiptoe himself to watch Tessie.

"We'll have a drawing made of you on a throne and wearing a crown. Joe Cary can do it," promised Norah Lee, who was revelling in this opportunity which had come to her, and which never would have been hers if the advertising manager were not in the hospital for an appendix operation, and if the assistant advertising manager were not serving on a jury. It was her chance to show what she could do, and she knew it. Her eager ears had been quick to hear the loud sharp knock which Opportunity gave at her door. She knew also that the chance would not be hers a minute after the jury was dismissed. "We'll run it in the upper corner of this picture. I think it's wonderful, Miss Gilfooly!" she told Tessie heartily. "And I'm glad the luck has come to you. It wouldn't be half as interesting if it had come to Ethel Kingley--not half! If I can help you in any way don't hesitate to send for me. Mr. Kingley would want me to help you."

"Thank you," murmured Tessie gratefully, but she did not look at Norah Lee, she looked at Mr. Bill. "Everybody's so kind," she added chokingly.

"And now I'll take you to the lawyer's!" Mr. Bill looked very handsome and big and brave as he said what he would do. Tessie fairly shivered with ecstasy. "Come on, Miss Gilfooly!"

Tessie glanced back to smile and wave her hand at the clerks, who were so bewildered and amazed that they seemed to have forgotten the price of the most ordinary tinware. Even Mr. Walker stood with his eyes and mouth wide open. They were all deeply and darkly green. "Such luck!" they exclaimed, and they did not see why their uncles could not have died and made them queens of Pacific islands. Why should little Tessie Gilfooly be the one to have all the luck?

That same question was puzzling Tessie as Mr. Bill helped her into his car and took the place beside her.

"All set?" He smiled at her. "Let's go!"

This was almost more disturbing and amazing than to know that she was a queen. To think that at last, after regarding Mr. Bill as the most wonderful and unapproachable man in the world--for Tessie realized that a great gulf yawns between salesgirls and the sons of proprietors--to think that she should actually be riding up the avenue with him in his own car. She could not believe it, but she could like it. She gave a faint little murmur of content, like the purr of a happy kitten. Mr. Bill heard her and looked down.

"Great, isn't it?" he exclaimed with hearty admiration.

It was so very great that Tessie could only nod, and the tears came to her eyes, and the beating of her heart almost choked her. She did not want to go to her lawyer's, she wanted to ride on forever with Mr. Bill. She would far rather ride with Mr. Bill than hear about her kingdom.

The distance from the Evergreen to the office of Marvin, Phelps & Stokes was not long, but Mr. Bill had to make it longer before he found a decent parking place.

"If the cops knew who you were they'd let us stop anywhere," he grinned. "But they don't know, and we don't want any argument."

"Oh, no!" Tessie was congenitally opposed to anything unpleasant.

"Shall I wait for you, or do you want me to come up with you?" The question was only a form, for Mr. Bill would have been cut in inch-pieces before he would wait in the car while Tessie was with her lawyer, hearing about her inheritance. Mr. Bill chuckled. This was vastly more amusing than snooping around the Evergreen basement directing customers and finding fault with clerks.

"Please come with me," begged Tessie. "I want you. I--I feel so alone. Do come along."

"You bet I'll come!" exclaimed Mr. Bill, and he led her into the big office building and into the elevator, which whizzed them to a floor which had the name Marvin, Phelps & Stokes all over it. "Lord, what would the people in this elevator say if they knew you were a queen!" he whispered, just before they left the cage, and Tessie laughed and blushed and said "My goodness!" It was so wonderful to have Mr. Bill whisper in her ear that it was not strange that she could only think in breathless exclamations.

The young man who had brought Tessie the good news jumped up as they came in, and he scowled at Mr. Bill before he even smiled at Tessie.

"I'll tell Mr. Marvin you are here," he said to Tessie. "What do you want, Bill?" he demanded very ungraciously of Mr. Bill.

"Hello, Bert!" Mr. Bill was most affable. "This is great news you brought to the Evergreen. Dad and I want to help Miss Gilfooly in every way we can, so I came along with her."

"I guess when she has Marvin, Phelps & Stokes to help her she won't need any Evergreens," sniffed Bert rudely. "Come right in, Miss Gilfooly!" He pointedly refrained from offering Mr. Bill an invitation.

But Tessie would not have him left out. "Will you come with me?" she begged prettily. "Of course I know there isn't a thing to be afraid of, but I do feel funny." Her voice quivered.

It brought Mr. Bill to her side at once. He looked triumphantly at Bert, who sniffed again as he led them to the room of the senior partner of the most important law firm in Waloo--in the Northwest.

"Miss Gilfooly!" Mr. Marvin rose to his feet and took her hand. "It was very pleasant for us to send such good news to you," he smiled. "There isn't the shadow of a doubt that you inherit your uncle's property. He left it to the eldest child of his brother John, and we know that you are John Gilfooly's eldest child. But we must comply with the formalities and make everything legal. Undoubtedly you can let us have the record of your birth, and the record of the marriage of your father and mother?"

"Why!--why!--" faltered Tessie, who had no idea where she would find such records. And without them she might only be Tessie Gilfooly of the aluminum again. And Mr. Bill! Oh, it was cruel!

"If you haven't them you can easily get them," went on Mr. Marvin. He did not seem at all worried because Tessie did not have the necessary records in her pocket. "One of our men--Mr. Douglas, perhaps--can take you to the court house."

"I'll take her!" Mr. Bill offered eagerly.

"Where such records are kept," finished Mr. Marvin as if Mr. Bill had never said a word. It was outrageous the way he ignored Mr. Bill. Tessie looked at him indignantly. Didn't he know who Mr. Bill was? "I understand there is a little opposition to your uncle's will. A group of natives, Sons of Sunshine I believe they call themselves, want a native ruler, but you need not worry about them. The Honolulu lawyer, who brought us your uncle's will, tells me that a good majority of the people have declared that they will carry out King Peter's wishes. They are sending a special representative to escort you to the islands. Of course you shouldn't go alone."

"I wouldn't!" declared Tessie hastily. "I'd take my brother--he's a Boy Scout--and Granny. The warm climate will be good for Granny's rheumatism," she added thoughtfully.

"The natives have a curious tradition according to this Honolulu lawyer," Mr. Marvin said, ignoring the Boy Scouts and Granny's rheumatism as he had ignored Mr. Bill. "It is connected with a jewel--a big pearl. They believe that it fell from Heaven, from the Eye of God, and they will never accept a ruler who cannot show them that he or she--" he smiled at Tessie--"has it. The Tear of God, they call it. Unfortunately it has disappeared, and until you have it in your possession it would not be wise----"

"Is this it?" interrupted Tessie, and she opened her hand and showed him the huge pearl caught in the lacelike fibers.

Mr. Marvin put on his glasses and looked at it. "My dear child!" he exclaimed. "Where did you get this?" He was amazed to see that the Tear of God was on Tessie's pink palm. And he listened eagerly to Tessie's story of the native who was neither black nor brown nor yellow, but an attractive mingling of all three, who had followed Mr. Douglas to the Evergreen basement and prostrated himself at her feet before he gave her the pearl--the royal jewel of the Sunshine Islands.

"That must have been Ka-kee-ta. He came with the Honolulu lawyer," explained Mr. Marvin. "He insisted on following Bert so that he could see you at once. He was King Peter's special man, I believe. And he was evidently satisfied that you were the heiress. I suppose there must be a strong family resemblance. It is quite a romance, isn't it, Miss Gilfooly? Take good care of your jewel, for the natives would never accept you as their queen if you should lose it. Perhaps you had better leave it with me? I'll put it in our vault!"

"No." Tessie spoke firmly, although it startled her to know that she had a jewel of such importance. "I must show it to Granny, and to Johnny. Johnny will guard it for me. He's a Boy Scout."

"Just as you say." But it was plain that Mr. Marvin did not share Tessie's confidence in a Boy Scout as a custodian of a royal jewel. "And the sooner we get those records the better. Bert will take you to Mifflin to-morrow. I understand your father and mother were married in Mifflin."

Mr. Bill cast an appealing glance at Tessie. He wanted her to refuse to go to Mifflin with Bert Douglas and to insist on going with him, but Tessie only smiled tremulously and murmured that her father and mother had been married in Mifflin, and she would be ready to go with Mr. Douglas any time.

"I've resigned my position at the Evergreen," she added and in her proud young voice there was a little touch of regret. The Evergreen had meant the world to Tessie, and without it she felt a bit forlorn.

IV

Granny promptly fainted when she was told that her only granddaughter was a queen. Tessie and Mr. Bill, who was still dutifully obeying his father and looking after Queen Teresa, were at their wits' end. It was Johnny the Boy Scout, who sprinkled water over his grandmother's gray face.

"I shouldn't have told you about Uncle Pete all at once," quavered Tessie, remorsefully, as Granny opened puzzled eyes. Tessie slipped an arm around her. "I should have broken the news to you gently."