The Amazing Inheritance Part 10

"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 bas.e.m.e.nt 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 standing somewhat 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 a.s.sistance 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, un.o.btrusively 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 gla.s.ses 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 G.o.d. 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 bas.e.m.e.nt 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. "h.e.l.lo!" as they shot down and pa.s.sed 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.