"Johnnie! What's the matter with you? And you mean you don't know? you can't guess? You haven't _noticed_? And you right here all the time?" Surprise stiffened Johnnie's countenance. "Oh!" he cried, amazed and glad. "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 the least so. It was a conclusion that came to him now, and forcibly. For at his solemn, heart-felt, happy question, what this girl did was to fall back against her pillow, shouting with laughter, waving both arms, even kicking out her feet in the craziest manner. And "One-Eye!" she repeated; "One-Eye!" Then was swept into another paroxysm of mirth. Presently, "Well, go on! Tell me!" Johnnie said with proper masculine severity. "Oh, Johnnie, you _are_ so funny!" she declared breathlessly. "One-Eye! That _old man_! Oh, never, never, never, _never_!" The last never was only a squeak. "When y' git done laughin'--" he prompted; and waited, lips set, and lids 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 in his heart. He knew whom she meant; but he knew, too, that, sweet and pretty and lovable as she was, and no doubt capable of winning the affections of a mounted policeman or a millionaire, she had not the slightest chance in the world of marrying the handsome, the good, the wise, the peerless and high-born Mr. Perkins. "St! st! st!" he mourned. He sighed, leaned against the side of the shelf, propped his yellow head on 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 she could 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 with sorrowful 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 look here!" She thrust a finger under the collar of her dress and drew out a length of white ribbon, narrow and shining. Mid-way of it, playing along the satin, was a ring--a gold ring set all the way round with tiny, white, glistening stones. "Mr. Perkins, he gave me this," she added, and caught the ring to her lips. "Mrs. Perkins!" Now his eyes were big with the wonder of it all! That Waldorf-Astoria apartment--Cis was to live in it! There could no longer be any doubt of it. The ring was solid proof. Almost reverently he reached to take it in his fingers. "The same as Aladdin loved the Princess!" he said slowly.