"What's Dad done now?" asked Ethel, who knew of several things her father might have done. "Oh that!" she exclaimed carelessly, when she was told that her father thought it would be a good thing for the Evergreen should her brother and Queen Teresa marry. "I expect he is right. It would be a good thing for the store."
"Ethel! Ethel Kingley!" sputtered Mrs. Kingley. Her voice had seventy-five per cent of disgust in it now. "How can you! Bill and a clerk! an ex-clerk!"
"She seems a nice little thing," went on Ethel, as if she were looking at Tessie and actually saw that she was a nice little thing. "I dare say she would make Bill a good wife, and really, Mother, Bill should be allowed to choose his own wife. I know I mean to choose my own husband!"
"Oh, you!" But Mrs. Kingley was not interested in Ethel's husband. She was still too disturbed over Mr. Bill's wife.
"I dare say Miss Gilfooly will be quite crazy over Dad's banquet," went on Ethel, before she returned to her book, a story of married life which her mother declared no girl should read, but which every girl was reading.
Miss Gilfooly was pleased when she was told of the banquet. She thought it was quite too sweet of Mr. Kingley. She was a bit awed when she was told also that she would have to sit at Mr. Kingley's right hand during the banquet.
"I wish I could sit beside you," she was bold enough to say to Mr. Bill. "I'm scared to death of your father."
"Pooh!" exclaimed Mr. Bill, who could not imagine why any one should be scared of his father. Why, his father was just an old man chockfull of old-fashioned ideas and prejudices. "Dad's probably scared of you. He hasn't met many queens in the course of his straight and upright fifty years. And even if he had, he has never met a queen like you!" he declared with unrestrained admiration.
But still Tessie looked dissatisfied. "In what way," she asked quickly, "am I different from other queens?"
Mr. Bill looked at her. Didn't she know? "Glance at them!" he said scornfully. "Just glance at the old frumps and then look in your own mirror. You won't need any one to tell you the answer. The difference, as you will quickly see, is entirely in your favor!"