Then Bybee had taken her to his wife, a thin, hatchet-faced shrew of a woman who seemed to suspect everything in petticoats of having designs on her husband, and who in turn, seemed to feel equally sure that every man must envy him the possession of such a wonderful woman as his wife. His deference toward her touched Sally even as it amused her.
Mrs. Bybee was too good a business woman, however, to let jealousy interfere with her judgment where the show was concerned. She had demurred a little, then had abruptly agreed to Bybee's plans for Sally. Hours of sharp-tongued instruction from Mrs. Bybee had resulted in Sally's being on the platform now, nervously awaiting her turn.
The crowd surged nearer to Sally's platform. The spieler was introducing the giant now, and Jan was rising slowly from his enormous chair, unfolding his incredible length, standing erect at last, so that his head touched and slightly raised the sloping canvas roof of the tent.
She wondered, as she gazed pityingly and a little fearfully at Jan, how it felt to be three feet taller than even the tallest of ordinary men, and as she wondered she gazed upward into Jan's face and caught something of an answer to her question. For Jan's great, hollow eyes, set in a skeleton of a face, were the saddest she had ever seen, but patiently sad, as if the little-boy soul that hid somewhere in that terribly abnormal body of his had resigned itself to eternal sorrow and loneliness.
At the request of the spieler Jan stalked, like a seven-league-boots creature of a fairy tale, up and down the little platform, then, still sad-faced, patient, he folded up his amazing legs and relaxed in his great chair with a sigh. He was silently and indifferently offering postcard pictures of himself for sale when the barker turned toward Sally, cajoling the crowd away from the giant:
"And here, la-dees and gen-tle-men, we have the most beautiful girl that ever escaped from a Turkish harem--the Princess Lalla. Right here, folks! Here's a real treat for you! They may come bigger but they don't come prettier! I've saved the Princess Lalla for the last because she's the best. I know all you sheiks will agree with me--" Embarrassed snorts of laughter interrupted him. "That's right, boys. And if the Princess Lalla don't show up tonight I'll know that some good-looking Stanton boy has eloped with her.