“I’ve read about your people,” she said. “I’ve got a book in our garret that tells all about Kings.”
“That’s very nice,” answered Mr. King. “I won’t have to explain anything about us, then.” 46
“No, I know,” said Jinnie in satisfaction.
At least she thought she knew. Hadn’t she read over and over, when seated in the garret, the story of the old and new kings, how they sat on their thrones, and ruled their people sometimes with a rod of iron? Jinnie brought to mind some of the vivid pictures, and shyly lifted a pair of violet eyes to scan the face above her. Surely this King was handsomer than any in the book. She tried to imagine him on his throne, and wondered if he were always smiling as now.
“You’re quite different from your relations,” she observed presently.
Theodore King laughed aloud. The sound startled the girl into a straighter posture. It rang out so merrily that she laughed too after making up her mind that he was not ridiculing her.
“Really you are!” she exclaimed. “I mean it. You know the picture of the King with a red suit on,—he doesn’t look like you. His nose went sort of down over his mouth—I mean, well, yours don’t.”
She stumbled through the last few words, intuitively realizing that she had been too personal.
“You like to read, I gather,” stated Mr. King.
“Yes, but I like to fiddle better,” said Jinnie.