CHAPTER XXII
CIS TELLS A SECRET
CIS was seated on her narrow pallet, her back against the prizedexcelsior cushion, her knees drawn up within the circle of her slenderarms. About her shoulders tumbled her hair, its glossy waves framing aface, pale and tense, in which her eyes were wide pools of black.
Johnnie was just below her on the floor, his quilt spread under him forcomfort, a bare foot nursed in either hand. The combined positions weresuch as invariably made for confidences. And he guessed that what shehad to tell him now was something unusually important and exciting.
"Johnnie," she whispered, and he saw himself dancing in those darkpools; "--oh, if I don't tell it to somebody, I'll just _die_! Oh,Johnnie, what do you think? What do you _think_?"
He thought; then, "New shoes?" he hazarded. "A new dress? A--a--moremoney at the fact'ry? Or"--and in an excited rush--"another book!"
"_Oh!_" She lifted her face to the ceiling, wagging her head helplessly."Shoes! or a dress! or money! or a book! They're nothing, Johnnie,alongside of the truth--just _nothing_!"
"Well, then, what?" he asked, leaning forward encouragingly. "Go on,Cis! Tell me!"
"Johnnie Smith,"--impressively--"you're sitting beside a young ladythat's going to be married!"
Johnnie gasped. "_Married?_" He fell back from her, the better to stare.He had expected an important communication; but he was not prepared foranything so astounding as this.
She nodded. "Right away."
Going to be married! So that was why she seemed so different, sochanged! that was why she had been wearing her hair up, and fussing sooften with her nails! why she cared no longer for Edwarda! why she couldnot see the people of his thinks! It was simple enough, now that heunderstood. Of course with a wedding in view, naturally she wasgrown-up; and a girl, whenever she got grown-up, could not let herbraids hang down her back. And as for fine hands-- "Y' mean y've heardfrom the _Prince_?" he demanded.
She laughed. "No-o-o-o! Oh, Johnnie, you silly!"
He knit his brows and regarded her reprovingly. "Well," he argued, "y'always told me how much y' love him."
"But I didn't ever know him even! And that was a long time ago!--No,it's some one else, and really a Prince, because he's so splendid! Oh,Johnnie, guess! Guess the most wonderful person ever! Guess a knight!Like Galahad! Oh, he's _exactly_ like Galahad!" Now she gazed past him.There were tears on her eyelashes. Her parted lips were trembling. "I'mtoo happy almost to live!" she added. Then down went her forehead torest on her knees, and he saw that she was trembling all over.
There was a long silence. Just at first he had felt inclined to taunther a little for being so changeable in her affections, so flighty; andit had hurt his opinion of her, this knowledge that she could bedisloyal. But now he was curious. Who was really a Prince? and splendid?and like Galahad?
He saw a figure, tall and dark, majestically seated upon a great, bayhorse. A cap shaded proud, piercing eyes. A uniform set the rider whollyapart from all the ordinary men hurrying by in both directions. Who inthe city of New York was so like a knight as one of those brave, superb,unapproachable, almost royal, creatures, a mounted policeman? ("FineIrishers," as Mrs. Kukor called them.)
Then Johnnie was reminded of something. "Cis, will y' be married with ared carpet?" he whispered.
She looked up, turning on him a smile so sweet and glowing that it waslike a light. "I don't know," she whispered back. "Maybe--if I wantone--I think so." Down went her head again.
Now another picture. The carpet was laid. It stretched across the smoothpavement under a long, high, gray canopy. A red carpet and a gray canopymeant just one thing: great wealth. And Johnnie saw Cis following wherethat carpet led, beside her one of the four richest men in the world.This man was Mr. Astor (or Mr. Vanderbilt, or Mr. Rockefeller, or Mr.Carnegie--any one of the quartette would do). The mounted policeman wasstill a part of the happy scene, but only in an official capacity, sincefrom the back of his prancing bay he was keeping off the vast crowd thatwas swarming to see the bridal couple.
And, naturally, the policeman, in spite of his fine uniform, was not tobe compared for a moment to the bridegroom. New York had many policemen;it had only one Mr. Astor (or Mr. Vanderbilt, or Mr. Rockefeller, or Mr.Carnegie). Also, the future surroundings of a Mrs. Policeman--what werethey when put alongside what Cis would have when she was Mrs.Any-one-of-the-Four? A house as big as the Grand Central Station--thatwas a certainty. With it would go silk dresses and furs with dozens oflittle tails to trim them; jewels of the sort Aladdin had sent theSultan for the Princess Buddir al Buddoor; books in as great a numberas Cis cared to buy, all from that store in Fifth Avenue; automobileslike those owned by the Fifty-fifth Street rich man; dishes of massygold.
"And I betcher I'll ride in one of her cars," he thought; "and I'll readher books!" And at once the future looked rosy and promising.
She began to whisper again, her chin on a knee: "He's got a place for meall picked out! I won't have to go to the factory any more! I'll havepretty clothes, and good things to eat every meal, and see plays andmoving-pictures every week, and just have nothing to do but keep house,and sew, and----"
The startled expression on Johnnie's face stopped her. "Keep house?" herepeated, disgusted. "_Sew?_" These were not matters which shouldtrouble the bride of a millionaire! "What're y' goin' t' do things like_that_ for?"
She blinked at him, rebuffed and puzzled. "Why not? I like to sew."
"Aw,"--the palace of his vision was down now, had vanished likeAladdin's own--"what's your new name goin' t' be?" He felt unaccountablycross.
"Johnnie! What's the matter with you? And you mean you don't know? youcan't guess? You haven't _noticed_? And you right here all the time?"
Surprise stiffened Johnnie's countenance. "Oh!" he cried, amazed andglad. "Oh, Cis, I know now! You're goin' t' marry One-Eye!"
Girls, as he knew, were very strange; and surely this one was not theleast so. It was a conclusion that came to him now, and forcibly. For athis solemn, heart-felt, happy question, what this girl did was to fallback against her pillow, shouting with laughter, waving both arms, evenkicking out her feet in the craziest manner. And "One-Eye!" sherepeated; "One-Eye!" Then was swept into another paroxysm of mirth.
Presently, "Well, go on! Tell me!" Johnnie said with proper masculineseverity.
"Oh, Johnnie, you _are_ so funny!" she declared breathlessly. "One-Eye!That _old man_! Oh, never, never, never, _never_!" The last never wasonly a squeak.
"When y' git done laughin'--" he prompted; and waited, lips set, andlids lowered with displeasure.
"Somebody a _thousand_ times nicer than One-Eye!" she went on. "A_million_ times nicer! And, oh, Johnnie, how I _love_ him!"
Johnnie's heart sank, heavy with the great pity that now welled up inhis heart. He knew whom she meant; but he knew, too, that, sweet andpretty and lovable as she was, and no doubt capable of winning theaffections of a mounted policeman or a millionaire, she had not theslightest chance in the world of marrying the handsome, the good, thewise, the peerless and high-born Mr. Perkins. "St! st! st!" he mourned.He sighed, leaned against the side of the shelf, propped his yellow headon a big hand, and watched her sadly.
"Mrs. Algernon Godfrey Perkins!"--Cis spoke as if in an ecstatic dream."A. G. P.! _Oh_, but they're lovely initials!"
He was glad when she leaned her head on her knees again, for then shecould not see his face. "Gee!" he murmured.
"It was you brought him to me!" went on Cis. "I'll never forget that,Johnnie! It means my whole life! Just think of that! A whole, long,wonderful life with _him_!"
"Aw, but, Cis! Are y' sure y' got a chance?"--his voice was tender withsorrowful concern.
She sat up. "Johnnie Smith, what're you talking about?" she demanded. "A_chance_! Why, he loves me! He says so! Over and over and over! And lookhere!" She thrust a finger under the collar of her dress and drew out alength of white ribbon, narrow and shining. Mid-way of it, playing alongthe satin, was a ring--a gold r
ing set all the way round with tiny,white, glistening stones. "Mr. Perkins, he gave me this," she added, andcaught the ring to her lips.
"Mrs. Perkins!" Now his eyes were big with the wonder of it all! ThatWaldorf-Astoria apartment--Cis was to live in it! There could no longerbe any doubt of it. The ring was solid proof. Almost reverently hereached to take it in his fingers. "The same as Aladdin loved thePrincess!" he said slowly.
Cis gave a toss of her brown head. "Oh, Aladdin!" she scoffed. "This isreally and truly, Johnnie! There's no make-believe about it!"
What all this meant to her, to Mr. Perkins, and to him, he realizedthen. But he could not be happy over it because of a new fear. "Oh,Cis!" he cried, leaning close to speak low. "Don't y' know what's goin't' happen? If y' tell Big Tom 'bout this, he'll kill y'! And, oh! oh!He'll kill _him_! Mister Perkins!"
"Sh! Sh!" She put an arm about him. "It's going to be all right! Who'lltell Big Tom? Don't you worry. _I_ don't. I'm not his daughter. Mr.Perkins is going to find me a guardian. It'll be a lady, I think. Anyhowthen I'll do just what the guardian says. You know, guardians 'reawfully stylish. Girls have them in books, and in the movies. Yesterdaysomebody was telling at the factory about----"
She had caught his interest, taking it from that fresh worry. His armsabout her, his head resting against her shoulder, they talked on and on,in whispers. When Barber came stomping in, and ordered them to be quiet,Johnnie forsook the little blue room; but he could not sleep, and stoleto the roof for a breath of fresh air.
The night was the most beautiful he had ever seen. Or was it the joy inhis own heart that made everything seem so perfect? How deeply blue werethe patches of star-sprinkled sky showing between clouds of dazzlingwhite! How sweet and live was the air driving cityward from the sea! Andthe moon! As it came slipping from cloud to cloud, as round as thewashtub, and nearly as large, it seemed to Johnnie to have a face thathe could see plainly. And that face, full and fat, was laughing!