Part 6

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."

IX

The story of Queen Teresa appeared in the _Gazette_. It seemed to splash all over the front page. There was the picture of Tessie in her black frock at the aluminum, there was a cut of a tropical island overgrown with gigantic palm trees, and in the corner was the drawing of Tessie with a crown on her head and seated in a big carved chair under a huge palm tree, receiving the homage of a throng of people in queer costumes--or in no costumes at all.

"We'll cut this out and keep it, Tessie," Granny said, proud that the Gilfoolys occupied so much of the front page of Waloo's most important newspaper. "Maybe some day you'll like to read it again."

Granny read it any number of times and obtained much information from the article on the Sunshine Islands, for the reporter had borrowed Tessie's library books in which none of the Gilfoolys had had time to look.

"I don't know how I'm going to like this kingdom of yours, Tessie." Granny looked over her glasses at the young queen, who was trying on a new frock before the full-length mirror in their suite at the Waloo Hotel. "Raw fish they eat, and their gravy's made out of sea water and lemon juice and cocoanut milk. Sounds like a mess to me! And the best people don't seem to eat chicken. They eat pork. I don't know how I'm going to like it."

Tessie turned away from the long mirror which had reflected a charming little creature in a smart frock of blue taffeta, and hugged her grandmother. Much she cared about gravy. But there was still considerable awe in her voice as she cried, "Granny! can you believe it? Isn't it too wonderful?" Her voice shook with the wonder of it. Her whole body trembled as she pressed close to Granny.

"There, there!" Granny patted her cheek. "It's all true enough. You've only got to look at Ka-kee-ta and smell that cocoanut oil he pours over his head to know it's true. It makes me more nervous to have him always standing at the front door with his meat ax than it does to be alone with that Tear of God. Protector, indeed! I guess Johnny could protect us all we need protecting. Or Joe Cary! I didn't feel right, Tessie, to go off and leave Joe Cary alone in the old house, but he wouldn't come with us and there wasn't room for Ka-kee-ta there, and so there wasn't anything else to do. And that's another thing that makes me wonder about this new job of yours, Tessie. What kind of a country is it where the queen has to have a man with a meat ax to protect her?"

Tessie laughed and hugged her grandmother again. "Silly old dear!" she said lovingly. "Mr. Douglas explained it all to me. There isn't any necessity now, Granny, or at least he doesn't think there is. It's just a custom. Once upon a time it was necessary, Mr. Douglas said, for the king to have a bodyguard to protect him from his enemies, but now it's probably just a custom. Anyway, I haven't any enemies," she finished triumphantly.

"Gracious, I should hope not! And I hope to goodness Mr. Douglas knows what he's talking about and it is only a custom," grumbled Granny. "It don't sound good to me, but I'm old-fashioned and maybe it's all right. It certainly did make folks stare when we walked into the Evergreen with Ka-kee-ta walking behind us with his meat ax. I guess everybody in the store knew you was somebody with Mr. Kingley and his son and all the clerks a-hanging around!" She laughed happily as she recalled the pleasant experience. "And that lady they called the advertising--what was she doing here last night, Tessie?"

"She came to help me look over my mail." Tessie sighed as she remembered her mail. "I never could have done it alone, Granny."

"You poor child!" sympathized Granny, as she too visualized Tessie's mail, which had been brought to her in a huge clothes-basket.

The publication in the _Gazette_ of the romantic story of the queen who was found in the basement of the Evergreen, had been the signal for an army to take to typewriters and pens, at least it seemed as if it must have taken an army to write the enormous number of letters which had been addressed to Queen Teresa, or to Miss Teresa Gilfooly, Queen, or to Her Majesty, Miss Gilfooly.

There were seventy-three proposals of marriage from men who stated that they were willing to be kings, and that they were strong and fearless and would help Queen Teresa govern her kingdom. There were innumerable letters from automobile dealers, florists, dressmakers, shoemakers, milliners, jewelers, stationers, real estate dealers, railroad and steamship agents, caterers, architects, house decorators, dancing teachers. Indeed every one who was in business in Waloo wasted no time in calling Queen Teresa's attention to the fact and to the knowledge that he was eager to serve her, and the sooner the better.

There were letters from philanthropic organizations asking the queen's patronage for orphanages and old peoples' homes. There were letters from girls who wanted to be singers or dancers, and from boys who wanted to be painters or poets and who asked for loans from the royal treasury. There were letters from people who wanted mortgages raised and doctors paid or victrolas bought.

And here came a boy with another basket filled with mail. It was too provoking. If Tessie read half of them she would have time for nothing else. And after the first basketful, the reading of the letters was a stupid task. You can understand why Tessie looked at them in horror and despair.

"You'll have to get a secretary," grinned Mr. Bill, who had brought Tessie a huge bunch of violets, "or throw them out. They aren't worth reading. Throw them out!"

"I can't do that," frowned Tessie, her nose buried in the violets. "It wouldn't be right. There might be something in one of them, you know, something I should know about." Tessie showed every symptom of taking her royal duties seriously. "Mr. Marvin said Mr. Douglas could help me. Perhaps----"

"Bert!" interrupted Mr. Bill quickly. "Bert couldn't help you in this sort of a job." Mr. Bill was quite sure that Bert would be worse than useless. "You want to have a woman. Miss Lee helped you yesterday, didn't she? I expect Dad would let you have her again. You know her and you like her?" Tessie nodded, and her face brightened. She would like to have Norah Lee help her. Norah was not a stranger. "Just chuck the stuff away and let Miss Lee look after it and come with me for a spin around the lakes. You'll be sick if you stay cooped up here all day. Come on! Just the two of us!" he coaxed.

Tessie hesitated, and you know what happens when people hesitate. She allowed Mr. Bill to push the big basket full of letters under the table and ran to put on her hat. Just outside the door stood Ka-kee-ta, an object of terror to the hotel staff and of pride to the hotel guests. He drew himself up as Tessie came out with Mr. Bill and raising his ax to his shoulder fell in behind them. Mr. Bill stopped.

"The queen won't need you, Ka-kee-ta," he said carelessly. "I'll look after her."

"Yes, Ka-kee-ta, you can take a rest," smiled Tessie.

"Glad to be rid of him for awhile?" grinned Mr. Bill, as he followed Tessie into the elevator. "Hello!" as they shot down and passed another cage shooting up. "There is our friend Douglas going up to see you."

"Oh!" And as the elevator stopped at the office floor Tessie hesitated. "Perhaps I should go back? Perhaps he has come to tell me that the special representative has come from the islands? Perhaps----"

"That's enough of perhapses." Mr. Bill dared to put his hand on her arm. When he was with Tessie he frequently forgot that she was a queen and that he was only a floorwalker in the Evergreen. "What do you care? It won't hurt your special representative to wait for you. You have had to wait for him. Come on! I dare you!"

Again Tessie hesitated, and then she laughed softly and walked down the corridor with Mr. Bill. All around her she heard whispers. "That's Queen Teresa! She used to sell face cream at the Evergreen and now she's Queen of the Sunshine Islands!" It was exciting if it was not altogether truthful.

When they reached the curb where Mr. Bill's car was parked, and Tessie was settled on the front seat, there at her side, his hand on the door, was Ka-kee-ta, ax and all.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Tessie. "Couldn't a queen ever go anywhere with a gentleman friend?" She looked at Mr. Bill for an answer to her unuttered question.

Mr. Bill frowned at the royal bodyguard. "Look here, Ka-kee-ta," he said sharply, "didn't I tell you that I would take care of the queen?"

Much Ka-kee-ta cared what Mr. Bill had said. He arranged himself in a graceful loop on the running board, close to Tessie's elbow, and there was every indication that he meant to stay there as long as Tessie remained in the car.

"Oh, dear!" Tessie was almost in tears. What a lot queens did have to endure!

"Here!" Mr. Bill threw open the door of the tonneau. "If you will insist on going where you're not wanted, sit there!" And he waved his hand toward the rear seat.

With a look that measured the distance between the front seat and the back, Ka-kee-ta stepped into the car and settled himself with a grunt. He held his ax straight before him. He did look so silly that he made Tessie feel silly, too. She wanted to cry.

"Comfy?" Mr. Bill asked tenderly, as he put his finger on the self-starter.

She stopped wanting to cry because she discovered that she wanted to smile. "Awfully comfy! But I do hate to be tagged around by 'that' all the time!" And she frowned as she jerked her head back to indicate the watchful bodyguard.

"We'll forget all about him. And about queens, too, shall we?" As he bent to hear her answer, he all but ran into a car which had raced toward them.

With a snarl Ka-kee-ta was on his feet, his ax suspended over Mr. Bill's head.

"Ka-kee-ta!" Tessie grasped his arm and held it with all of her might.

"What's the matter?" demanded Mr. Bill with a deep breath. "That was a close shave. Looked as if that machine was deliberately trying to run us down. But we're all right, aren't we?" He saw that Tessie was all right. "Sit down, old friend!" he said to Ka-kee-ta, "and watch your ax. I'd kill myself before I'd let anything happen to your queen. I mean that!" he told Tessie in a husky voice.

"You're awfully kind," murmured Tessie, her heart beating so fast and so loud that she was sure Mr. Bill must hear it.

"I wish you weren't a queen!" Mr. Bill exclaimed impulsively.

"Why?" Tessie's eyes widened.

"Why? Do you like to have Ka-kee-ta trailing you all the time?" He gave her just one reason why she might wish she were not a queen.

"No, but I like to be a queen," she answered truthfully.

"I suppose a girl would," in disgust. "We could have a lot more fun if you were just a--just a--"

"Nobody!" Tessie finished the sentence for him. "But when I was a nobody, Mr. Bill, you never saw me! You never knew I was on earth until I was a queen!"

"That isn't fair!" stammered Mr. Bill, when he was confronted with the truth. "That isn't fair!"

"It's true, isn't it?" demanded Tessie triumphantly. "I should say I am glad I'm a queen!"

"So I would know you are on earth?" asked Mr. Bill softly, and quite forgetting the gulf which is supposed to yawn between queens and floorwalkers.

But Tessie would not admit that that was the reason she was glad to be a queen. No girl would.

"The idea!" she said instead, and sat up straighter and refused to exchange tender glances with him. "Is this a good car?" she asked in a most matter-of-fact voice. "I have to buy a car, and I don't know which is a good one."

"I do!" exclaimed Mr. Bill emphatically. "And I'll help you buy a car. I'll help you do anything!" And he might have dared to put his hand on the royal fingers, they were so soft and white as they rested on her knee beside him, but a snarl from the rear made him realize that Ka-kee-ta's eyes were watchful. "I wish we could lose him," he grumbled.

"So do I," agreed Tessie heartily.

But Ka-kee-ta snarled louder and jumped to his feet and stared at a car which had come so close to them that it had almost scraped their fender. He waved his ax wildly.

"The shark!" he shouted. "The shark!"

Mr. Bill stopped his car dead. "What do you mean?" he demanded. "What do you mean?"

"The shark!" squealed Ka-kee-ta with another flourish of his ax.

"That's what the man we found on the porch said!" exclaimed Tessie anxiously. "What do you suppose he means?" And when Mr. Bill could not tell her she turned to Ka-kee-ta. "What do you mean, Ka-kee-ta?"

The car which had all but scraped their fender, turned a corner and was out of sight.

"The shark," mumbled Ka-kee-ta, and dropped back in his place.

"Well, I'll be darned!" muttered Mr. Bill, as he started his engine. "What did he mean? He couldn't see any shark, could he? What did he mean?"

But Ka-kee-ta refused to tell them why he had jumped up and shouted. He sulked and fiddled with his ax, and at last they left him alone.

"There are so many things I don't understand," sighed Tessie. "I--I don't know what I would do if I didn't have you to help me. Sometimes I wish the police hadn't been so quick about letting that other man go. It must mean something when two black men talk about a shark, mustn't it?" She turned a troubled face to Mr. Bill.

"They sound and look to me more like a fraternity initiation than anything else," said puzzled Mr. Bill. "Perhaps they don't mean what we mean when we say 'shark.' Perhaps 'shark' is the Sunshine Island word for hello!"

"Oh!" Tessie looked up at him with eyes full of wonder and admiration. "I do think you are the most wonderful man in the world! No one else would ever have thought of that!"

"Oh, I don't know," Mr. Bill murmured modestly. "But it might be true, you know."

"I'm sure it's true!" exclaimed Tessie eagerly.

X

Tessie really did not think much about Ka-kee-ta and his excited exclamations. She had too much to do to guess conundrums. Never was there a busier queen. The publicity the newspapers gave her brought new duties every day.

"You can't refuse," Norah Lee told her firmly. Norah had been loaned to the Sunshine Islands by the Evergreen and was taking her new work very seriously. "You want to advertise your kingdom, don't you? Make people know about it? I dare say there are thousands in Waloo this minute who have never heard of it, in spite of the corking stories the newspapers are giving you. Every one doesn't read every paper, and if you aren't in all the papers some people will miss knowing about you. It's your duty as a queen to make the Sunshine Islands the most talked about place in the world."

Put that way Tessie could not refuse, and she graciously permitted herself to be photographed and interviewed until every daily newspaper made a story of Queen Teresa and her islands as much a part of its daily routine as the sport page or the stock reports. "Our Queen," the _Gazette_ proudly called her, because she had made her first appearance in the _Gazette_.

She kept her promise to Mr. Kingley, and with Ka-kee-ta--his ax polished to silver brightness--stood in the basement of the Evergreen behind the familiar counter stocked high with aluminum. She might be the same little Tessie at heart, but outwardly there was a vast difference. She looked like a princess playing at being a salesgirl for her gown was of black silk crepe instead of cheap sateen, her hair was done in the simple fashion approved by Miss Morley, and at Mr. Kingley's request around her neck hung the Tear of God in its fiber lace. No one scolded her if she made a mistake. Indeed, Mr. Kingley had craftily minimized her chance to make a mistake by decreeing that she should only take the order and hand the parcel to the purchaser, the other girls could make out the sales-slips. And the basement was mobbed with purchasers.

"She's doing it for the shoe fund of her new kingdom," was a whisper frequently heard among them. "And no wonder!" would be the sympathetic rejoinder when Ka-kee-ta's bare feet were seen.

"I'll keep this all my life!" exclaimed a well-cushioned, warm-hearted woman. "I'll hand it down to my grandchildren," she promised tearfully. "To think a real queen sold it to me!"

"You're such a beautiful queen!" wept another emotional creature. "I read every word about you!"

Norah Lee watched the crowd from a sheltered corner, where Joe Cary found her.

"Hello!" he said. "Can't keep away from the old home, can you? May I say we miss you like the dickens up on the fifth." And he grinned as if he had missed her.

"I'm glad," Norah said simply, although she flushed a bit. "One likes to be missed. You are getting mighty good publicity these days. The Evergreen is all over all the papers."

"Don't blame me," begged Joe. "I don't believe in exploiting a little girl even if she is unfortunate enough to be the queen of a cannibal island, and even if it does put the Evergreen all over all the papers. I have a conscience tucked away somewhere about me!" he told her proudly, as if a conscience was a rare and valuable treasure. "How do you like your new job?" he asked curiously.

She laughed. She was a tall slim girl with jolly brown eyes and a jolly laugh. She and Joe had been in the same office for a year and Joe admired her immensely, but Norah thought her work was the most important thing in the world. She had not been pleased when she was loaned to the Queen of the Sunshine Islands, but the first basketful of mail had interested her, and she was still interested in the strange letters which came to Queen Teresa. So she laughed when Joe asked her about her new job.

"It is amusing," she said. "And surprising. I never knew there were so many people who want something for nothing. Miss Gilfooly is a dear little thing, isn't she? She accepts all the attention and admiration she is receiving without a question. She hasn't an analytical mind, has she? She never questions, she just accepts. I can't understand that! I would be just one huge interrogation point. The whole thing is so strange that sometimes I wonder--" She hesitated and looked oddly at Joe.

Joe looked oddly at her. "Sometimes I wonder, too," he said. "I don't understand it at all, but I'll tell you this, Miss Lee, if any one tries to play tricks on Tessie Gilfooly, he will have to answer to me!"

She nodded. "You're in love with her, aren't you?" As soon as the words slipped over her lips she turned crimson and stammered. "I beg your pardon! Don't tell me, please! It isn't any of my business!"

"Pooh!" exclaimed straightforward Joe. "I would just as soon tell the world. Of course I'm in love with her and with Granny and Johnny, the best of Boy Scouts. And that's why I say if any one gets gay with Tessie, I'll have something to say."

"Would you dare?" She seemed pleased to hear that he was in love with Granny and Johnny as well as with Tessie. But she looked not at Joe, but at the owner of the Evergreen, who had come down to the basement to watch a queen sell his aluminum.

"Pooh!" exclaimed Joe again. "You bet I'd dare! I'm not going to stay here all my life anyway. I've got a chance to go in with the World Wide Agency, and I guess that will push me ahead faster than the Evergreen. I'm just waiting until this queen business is over, and then I'll leave."

"Oh!" Norah Lee stared at him with big covetous eyes. "The World Wide!" She was frankly and honestly envious. "But if Miss Gilfooly goes to the Sunshine Islands?"

He laughed strangely. "Sometimes I wonder if there are any Sunshine Islands," he said scornfully, although he had read several of Tessie's library books and knew very well that there were Sunshine Islands, six of them.

"Why--why--" she stammered. "What do you mean?" She was so eager to hear what he meant that she drew closer, and Mr. Kingley found them with their heads together in business hours.

"Come, come, Cary!" he said sharply. "Have you finished that sketch?" For he had sent Joe to the basement to sketch the queen, not to talk to the queen's secretary.

Mr. Kingley was proud of his business acumen as he looked around the crowded basement. It was not every man who would have secured so much publicity in the discovery of a queen in a store basement. And how the store would benefit by his broad vision! There would not be enough aluminum in the Evergreen or in the city even, if the demand kept increasing as it had increased since the sale began. Tessie would have to shift to granite wear, and the excited women, who pressed so close to her, would never know the difference, although he would have the change announced in Mr. Walker's loudly penetrating voice. Mr. Kingley especially approved of Ka-kee-ta and his ax. They seemed to give an atmosphere of reality to the royalty in the Evergreen basement. Yes, the store would profit immensely by this sale. And Tessie would do well, too. She would have some more of that wonderful free publicity. He would guarantee that it would be nation-wide. And her per cent of the sales, small as he had been able to make it, would give her a good sum for the shoe fund for the orphans of the Sunshine Islands.