Margaret Dodge

“ Oh, I was sure from the beginning that you were a really, truly king, even if you didn't wear a crown and velvet robes. But," with a sudden clouding of her face, "you won't go away just when the Queen's coming?"
"Well, you see, the fact is," said the Great Man, setting the Princess carefully in the depths of the Turkish chair, "these meetings with royalty are so unusual for me that I feel hardly prepared for another one the same day. So I think I'll follow in a common car. And in the morning I'll ask for a private audience with the Queen." ”

“ This house stood on the other side of a common area, barely fifteen feet wide, and the railing upon which the offering lay was directly opposite the one where the little beastie crouched, but some ten feet below.
The monkey took in the situation with twinkling eyes. Then, after a brief chattered soliloquy, he humped up his back and drew himself together ready for a spring. ”

“ I should think that being a king yourself you'd know that when a person's been a real queen once she wouldn't care about being a make-believe one."
"But that's just like men; they never do urderstand. Now there was one that the Queen knew. ”

“ It is always so. You may give up the stage; it never gives up you. You may fancy that you have forgotten it; but one day, like Pandora in the old Greek legend, you open the forbidden casket—and, presto! the spirits of your past existence are alive and possess you. ”

“ Will you come back to the world that is yours by right of conquest? Will you gain glory for yourself and for the teacher who gave his best energies to your success? If you will—listen. It is a melodramatic request, maybe—but you know we stage people are always romantic, sentimental, if you like; we never do things in the every day fashion. Well—this afternoon at five I shall pass your home. If you consent—be on your piazza wearing the sapphire-blue cloak in which you made our triumph. ”

“ It gave forth, when opened, an odor indescribable, half sickening,—the odor of stale "make-up," the odor theatrical of grease paint and powder that hangs around oft-used stage gowns and properties. It was, in short, a wardrobe trunk, and one that had seen hard service. To the woman who knelt there in the mellow light of the October afternoon the old trunk was more than mere zinc and wood. ”

“ The pivot of the play, her manager had called the garment, and indeed, what with being put on and off, laid across a chair-back in the firelight as a background for her dark head and proud shoulders, and finally folded around her as she strayed out into a stage snow-storm, it had played an almost human part. ”

“ Besides, he lived in a city where east winds never blew, and where L trains and cable cars whizzed by with clockwork regularity. Consequently, he possessed few resources for killing time on street corners. After he had read his paper, looked over his memorandum book, and worn a path into the middle of the street by continued expeditions undertaken in hope of sighting the delayed car, he had backed up against the white trolley post, and fixed his lusterless eyes upon the row of brownstone apartment houses that lined the opposite side of the street. ”

“ And now," she continued, "I think I'll go back to the station. My auntie and the Queen will be wondering where I am."
"Wait a minute," said the man, drawing the child to his side. "I want to know more about this real Queen. You know they say all the royal families are connected, and she may be a relativ of mine."
"No, she isn't," said the small girl, leaning a little shyly against the royal shoulder;" because she told me once that she had no relations left since her father died. ”

“ It's the train to Washita. It was put down on the time-table, you know, to go at four this afternoon, and we all came down to the station to get it. And now they say it may be two hours before it arrives; so, instead of getting to Washita at half-past six, it will be long after nine, and we'll be too late to give our performance. And that will be a very d-r-eadful loss to the Queen."
"How's that?" said the Great Man. "One night can't make very much difference." ”

“ Upon her hearer's assurance that he would endeavor to bear up under censure, the small girl continued:
"It's like this: I s'pose you've such a big kingdom you don't get a chance to straighten out all the things that go wrong." ”

“ Put the whole party in my private car. Tell the engineer he must make extra time to get them there at six-thirty. Telegraph ahead for a clear track, and to Casstown for supplies, so that dinner may be served in this car. When the train is reacły to start step over to the station and tell the company that the train for Washita is waiting. And be sure that everything is done to make them comfortable. ”