"Why, Joe Cary!" She pushed him away, all wide-eyed astonishment. "Stop being a queen! The idea! I want you to know that I like being a queen! And I'm not afraid now! Not a bit! I don't care that for the Sons of Sunshine!" And she snapped her fingers at the rebels.
Joe looked at her and thought how dear and sweet and childish she was. If she were ten years old she could be no more unreasonable.
"I hope you'll always feel that way," was all he said, for he understood perfectly that nothing he could say would influence her now. He would have to leave it to Fate to show her what it meant to be the queen of half a dozen islands filled with savages.
It was not altogether Tessie's fault that she was so unreasonable and turned such a deaf ear to his plain, practical words. When Mr. Bill came in a few moments later, he did not scold Tessie and tell her that she was a little fool to think that she was a queen. Mr. Bill took her hand and raised it to his lips.
"Queen Teresa!" he murmured adoringly.
Tessie shot a triumphant glance at Joe before she went to put on her wrap, for she and Mr. Bill were going out to dine.
"At the Kingleys," she told Joe with shining eyes, for a month ago Tessie never thought that Fate could ever arrange matters so that she would dine at the Kingleys as an honored guest. But the Tessie of a month ago was not the Tessie of to-day, not a bit. No wonder the Kingleys, even Mrs. Kingley, now looked at her admiringly and made much of her.
When she came back with her rose wrap floating from her shoulders, her face rosy, too, and her eyes as bright as stars, even Joe had to look at her in admiration. But he groaned as well as admired. What was going to happen to little Tessie! Granny shook her head at another new frock, although that famous blind man on his galloping horse could have seen that she was peacock-proud of her granddaughter.
"Don't forget Ka-kee-ta," she said to Tessie, as if Ka-kee-ta were a pocket handkerchief and must not be forgotten.