The Amazing Inheritance

by Frances R. Sterrett

"I meant Tessie's engagement!" She was surprised that he did not understand which was the most important of the three events he mentioned. "I thought you were rather fond of our little queen, yourself," she said with the frank interest which was Norah Lee. There was an odd little breathlessness in her voice as she asked the question, and she watched his face with eager eyes.

Joe laughed carelessly. "Our little queen!" He ironically repeated the phrase which had been so often on the lips of Mr. Kingley. "Of course I'm fond of her. She has been like a sister to me. And she used to make me furious, when she was so unhappy, because she couldn't have everything that Ethel Kingley had, and yet she never would do anything to boost herself. She wouldn't do anything but grumble to poor old Granny. I used to talk to her like a Dutch uncle, and a fat lot of good it did until this jolt came. Now she has had a chance to see that it isn't enough to be rich and powerful—to have things. Tessie knows now that it takes more than power and riches to make a girl happy."

"That's right," agreed Norah quickly, and now she looked as jubilant as Joe had looked. "A girl does have to have more than things. She has to have love. I never used to believe that, but I know now it's true. Isn't it romantic?" she hurried on, as Joe started to ask her how she knew about love now. "Mr. Bill and the queen who was once a shopgirl! And all the time she was a shopgirl, Mr. Bill never saw her. Not until she was a queen!" It almost seemed as if she blamed Mr. Bill for such poor eyesight in regard to shopgirls.

"More credit to him!" declared Joe warmly. "I've always thought it was fine in Bill that he never saw the girls who work in the store. If he had run around after Tessie, I would have known he was a bad egg, but now— You see, living at her house as I did, I felt as if she were a sister. I don't mind telling you that there was a time when I might have cared for her more than a fellow does care for a sister, but when this queen business came up I found I didn't. It showed me the girl I really did care for. Want to hear about her?" He asked in a most friendly fashion, and with a pleased chuckle which made her look at him quickly. There was a flush on his face and a light in his eyes she had never seen there before. They made her almost afraid to hear about this girl Joe really cared for, but she nodded bravely.

"Of course!" And there was just as much friendliness in her voice as there had been in Joe's—no more and no less. But the color slipped from her cheeks and left them rather white, and there was a puzzled expression in her eyes. "Of course, I've discovered I'm old-fashioned enough to adore romance."

"This romance isn't finished yet," Joe told her. His voice was not as confident as it had been. It was just a bit husky and anxious. "The heroine worked in the Evergreen, too. She was in the advertising department, and she used to agree with old Kingley that everything was publicity that came to the store."

"In the advertising department!" interrupted Norah, and all the pretty color rushed back to her cheeks, and her eyes danced. "Do I know her?" she demanded. "I used to work in the advertising department of the Evergreen, too, you know."

"Sure you know her. You see her every day. I used to think my girl was all for business and getting on, that she considered ambition and success as the only things that counted. But since I've seen her trying to help an ignorant little girl, and being kind and sympathetic to an old woman, why I know she's got a heart so big that it can hold more than ambition and success. Oh, what's the use of beating about the bush? You know I mean you! I hope you care for me, but if you don't to-day you will to-morrow. I'm a persevering cuss, and I usually get what I want."

"And what do you want?" asked Norah, and the corners of her mouth danced with her eyes. She tried hard to look only politely interested, but she just succeeded in looking eager to have him put his want in plain words.

"You," he said bluntly, "Tessie's a kid. She'll never grow up. She'll be some one for Bill to pet and play with all of his life. But I don't want a plaything. I want a woman for my mate, a woman who will help me do my share of the world's work and will let me help her do her share. I want more than a wife. I want a comrade! How about it?" Casual as the words were, Joe's voice was not casual. It held a deep note which thrilled Norah through and through and made her put her hand quickly into his.