"Well, well," she said. "To think of little Tessie Gilfooly marrying the big Evergreen! That means more to me than to hear you were queen of a lot of cannibals, away off in the Pacific Ocean. We've seen the Evergreen and know what it is! But Ka-kee-ta and his ax weren't a good advertisement for the islands. Well, well, I wonder what Mrs. Scanlon'll say now! She's been snooping around all morning, wanting to know if we were back for good and saying she was glad her Lil was satisfied to be a good stenographer and didn't aim to be what she couldn't be. I wonder what she'll say when she hears you're going to marry the Evergreen! Well, well! I guess we'd all better have a cup of coffee and steady our nerves after what we been through. And, Tessie, you'd better change your dress. I like you to look like a queen so long's you got the clothes. This has been good for Tessie," she confided to the others as Tessie tore her hand from Mr. Bill, and obediently ran up the narrow stairs.
"It's good for any girl to think she is a queen for a while. And she don't have to be told she's queen of any cannibal islands, either. It's enough for a girl to know she's queen of a good man's heart."
"You are!" Granny caught Norah in a warm embrace. Granny did not seem at all surprised to hear what Norah was, but she did seem pleased.
"You see, the Lord has been good to the Carys as well as to the Gilfoolys," grinned Joe, and he put his arm around the two women.
"Well, well!" Granny put Norah away so that she could look into her shining face. "All I can say is you're a lucky girl. Joe Cary's been a good friend, and he'll make a good husband. I know!" And she looked at Norah and then at Joe, as if indeed she did know.
"Not as good as Mr. Bill!" declared Tessie from the doorway. She was breathless with the haste she had made, but she looked more familiar to them now in her crepe frock than she had in the shabby black sateen. "Mr. Bill is going to make the best husband in the world!" she told Granny confidently, as she slipped her fingers into Mr. Bill's waiting hand.
"You darling!" exclaimed Mr. Bill chokingly, and he put out his arm and drew her closer. "You darling Tessie Gilfooly!" And he kissed her warm red lips.
Granny smiled at them and at Joe and Norah. "What a grand thing that would be," she said slowly, "if all the men would try to be the best husbands in the world, and all the girls would try to be the best wives in the world. I guess then we wouldn't have no divorces. H—sh! Is that Johnny in the pantry?" Her keen ears had caught the rattle of crockery. "Who's going to tell him that some of the Sunshine Islands have been washed away by a tidal wave? Who's going to tell him that Tessie's given back her kingdom and now the islands'll never have Boy Scouts?"