Page:The Black Cat v01no05 (1896-02).pdf/49

Rh was startled by these words, spoken in a shrill little voice, apparently just at his back:

"If you please, sir, are you the king?"

The moment that elapsed before the Great Man could whirl about in the direction of the voice was long enough for several detached bits of "Alice in Wonderland" to flit through his brain. What he saw, however, when faced around, was simply a very solemn, very pale little girl who stood with one thin hand on the door knob, and one small scarlet-stockinged leg well advanced, while her hazel eyes gleamed at him anxiously from under a fuzzy browa hat.

"Really," said the Great Man, good humoredly, "I don't know—why, yes, now that you speak of it—I suppose I am a sort of king. At least, I believe newspapers call me a railroad king. Won't you come here and sit down?"

The small girl shut the door and slid to his side in a gait that combined a hop and a glide. "I suppose it isn't just the thing to sit down in—in the presence of royalty," she said, as she perched on the edge of a big tapestry-cushioned Turkish chair. "But, you see, I am a princess myself—a fairy princess,"—she added, with an emphatic shake of her fluffy yellow locks.

"Indeed." The "Alice in Wonderland" memories suddenly revived. "That's very interesting, and I don't like to doubt the word of a lady. But all the fairy princesses of my acquaintance have had wings and spangles, and carried star-tipped wands—and—and all that," concluded the Great Man vaguely.

"But that was because you saw them during the performance," said the small girl, clasping her thin little fingers over one scarlet stockinged knee. "I wear wings and spangles and carry a wand myself, in the evenings, and at the Wednesday and Saturday matinées. I'm the Princess Iris," she explained, "in the Golden Crown Opera Company; and if I wore my fairy clothes all the time my wings would fade and the spangles would wear off.

"But you know," said the small girl, "you don't look a bit like the kings of my acquaintance. They all wear gilt crowns and velvet and ermine robes, and carry scepters. And, besides, you are a great deal too young."