ry!" she whispered. "And he's awful
stylish! Did you notice?--his handkerchief to-day had a teeny brown edge
to it!"

In the morning, she did an unprecedented thing: rose earlier than usual
and helped Johnnie set the flat to rights. The dish cupboard came in for
the most of her attention, a fact which brought loud protests from him,
for she used up the whole of Mr. Maloney's precious newspapers, this in
making fancifully cut covers for the shelves.

"Oh, let's look civilized!" she cried.

She came home at noon, her girl friends accompanying her, but waiting,
as before, in the area. She was not so shy as she had been the first
day; instead, she was dignified as she viewed the arm- and leg-work,
praised Johnnie with sweet condescension, and thanked Mr. Perkins for
all his trouble with quite a grown-up air.

The noon following, she arrived alone (Mr. Perkins had remarked the day
previous that he would be coming regularly now). As he had appeared
early, and the exercising was over and done, he and Cis went down the
stairs together. Johnnie stood outside the door to watch them, and
marveled as he watched. When had he ever seen Cis smile so much? chatter
so freely? Now she did not seem afraid of Mr. Perkins at all!

In the hall overhead some one else was watching--Mrs. Kukor. As he
looked up, she nodded at him. "Ah-ha-a-a-a!" she whispered, and laid one
finger along her nose mysteriously. Johnnie understood that she was
thinking of Big Tom. He nodded back, and put a finger to his lips.

All that afternoon he was so proud, just thinking of Cis threading the
crowds with Mr. Perkins at her side. Yet she herself was evidently not
impressed by the great compliment the leader had paid her. For the next
day she did not invite a similar experience by coming home at noon; nor
the next. In fact, she never again dropped in to see the drill. She had
lost interest in it, she told Johnnie--which was natural enough, seeing
that she was a girl.

But! She seemed also to have completely lost all interest in Mr.
Perkins!

CHAPTER XIX

A DIFFERENT CIS

BUT for some reason which Johnnie could not fathom, Cis suddenly began
to show a great deal of interest in the flat. Indeed, she was by way of
making his life miserable, what with her constant warnings and
instructions about keeping the rooms neat and clean. And she proved that
her concern was genuine by continuing to rise early each day in order to
help him with the housework