"Worried!" The word was inadequate to express what Mr. Bill had suffered. "Say," he said quickly, "when I heard you had been carried off I—I—Oh, hang it all!" The eager expression slipped from his face, and he drew back. "I wish you weren't a queen," he muttered discontentedly.
"What were you going to say?" asked Tessie eagerly. "Never mind the queen business. I want to hear what you were going to say."
Mr. Bill looked at her flushed little face and into her starry blue eyes, and he did not care a penny if she were a queen. She was the dearest, the sweetest, the loveliest girl in the world. She was Tessie! Tessie Gilfooly! He did not care a hang if she were also a queen. And he did not care another hang if they were there by the curb with the noon crowd moving up and down the sidewalk. He only remembered that Tessie was there beside him, within reach of his hand, and that all night he had been trying to find her, afraid for her. The words came in a great rush. He could not have kept one of them back to save his life. Tessie did not want him to keep them back—not one of them. Her ears were hungry to hear them all. She colored enchantingly.
"I'm crazy about you!" Mr. Bill said thickly. "And when you were kidnaped yesterday I nearly died! I would have died if you hadn't been found. I know I would! I never felt about a girl as I do about you. I—I don't feel complete unless you are with me. Oh, darn it! I wish you weren't a queen!" He remembered what she was, and looked at her helplessly, almost indignantly.
Tessie laughed softly, and the wild roses deepened in her cheeks. "I don't!" she said firmly. "If I hadn't been a queen, you never, never would have seen me! You never did see me until that day, and all the time I was crazy about you. The first day I went to the Evergreen was the first day you were there, and Mr. Walker took you around and showed you everything. I thought you were the most wonderful man in the world! But you never looked at me! You never saw me until I was a queen! I should say I was glad that Uncle Pete died and sent Ka-kee-ta to find me!" she finished breathlessly.
"You darling! You honey-girl!" Mr. Bill fought valiantly the impulse to take her in his arms and kiss her and kiss her right in the face of the moving noon throng. "And you really do like me?" He wanted to hear her say again that he was the most wonderful man in the world.
"I'm crazy about you!" Tessie repeated happily.
"My word!" He stared at her. "And I'm crazy about you! Can you believe it? I don't know how this is going to end," he said firmly, "but I know this much—I'm not going to give you up to any Sunshine Islands! You belong to me!" He held fast to what belonged to him and grinned.
"That's the wonderful part!" Tessie sighed with ecstasy, her heart beating so fast that she could scarcely find breath to go on. "That I belong to you, and you belong to me! I—I can't make it seem true! It's far more amazing than that I'm a queen!"
The word reminded them that they were on the way to meet the queen's special representative. They never would meet him if they remained in front of the Evergreen. Mr. Bill reluctantly touched a button, and they shot forward just as a man, a Gazette reporter, recognized Tessie. He raised a cheer.