Mr. Pracht shrugged his shoulders. "That is what the twenty-three children would like to know. They declare that King Pete hypnotized their father, or, as they put it, placed him under a spell. My private opinion is that the old king quarreled with his family until he hated every one of his twenty-three children. And they hated him. They hated each other, too, until their father died and they came together to fight his successor. That's why the Sons of Sunshine organized. You've heard of them?" He turned his bright blue eyes on Tessie again.
She nodded, but did not speak. Granny did not speak either for a moment; then she said slowly, as if she were trying to visualize her words:
"That's quite a family. Twenty-three children!"
"The old man had three wives," Mr. Pracht said with a little laugh.
"Three! Do you mean that a man can have more than one wife in my granddaughter's kingdom?" If Granny's gray hair had not been held by a net, it would have risen with horror at such a thought.
"A man can have as many wives as he can buy," explained Mr. Pracht. "You remember I told you the islands were not like Minnesota and Waloo." He laughed and showed two rows of big white teeth.
"They don't seem to be," murmured Granny, while Tessie gasped. "I must confess I am surprised. Ain't you surprised, Tessie, to hear all this? I had my suspicions after I got over my first surprise and had time to remember Pete, and to look into these books. But I thought you were going to tell us what you thought Tessie should do with these islands which her Uncle Pete left her when he died?" she said suddenly.
"There is but one thing to do," Mr. Pracht told her so suddenly and emphatically that she knew that he had given the question some study. He was not offering her any made-while-you-wait opinion. She should sell her rights in them, and sell as soon as she can. "Real estate values vary, you know, and just at present Miss Gilfooly could obtain a very good price. If she waits I am afraid she will lose money. If she sells her rights at once, I am quite sure that she will obtain enough to enable her to live like a queen wherever she pleases." He smiled pleasantly at Tessie, but Tessie frowned.
"I wouldn't be a queen if I sold my islands," she objected. Already her head felt bare, as if a crown had been torn from it.
"Surely you would be a queen. A queen doesn't lose her title when she loses her kingdom," declared Mr. Pracht, quick to see that honors meant more to Tessie just then than lands. "Look at Kaiser Bill. And the French empress who died the other day. So long as you live, you will be Queen Teresa of the Sunshine Islands. But take my word for it that you will find it much pleasanter to be Queen Teresa in London or Paris, or even in Waloo, than you would in the Sunshine Islands. I can't think of a thing you would like there—not one thing."