"I will." Bertram"s voice sounded almost as if he were repeating the marriage service.
"And we"ll come straight home afterwards as fast as John and Peggy can bring us?"
"Certainly."
"Then I think--I"ll--go," breathed Billy, tremulously, plainly showing what a momentous concession she thought she was making. "I do love "Romeo and Juliet," and I haven"t seen it for ages!"
"Good! Then I"ll find out about the tickets," cried Bertram, so elated at the prospect of having an old-time evening out with his wife that even the half-hourly telephones did not seem too great a price to pay.
When the time came, they were a little late in starting. Baby was fretful, and though Billy usually laid him in his crib and unhesitatingly left the room, insisting that he should go to sleep by himself in accordance with the most approved rules in her Scientific Training; yet to-night she could not bring herself to the point of leaving the house until he was quiet. Hurried as they were when they did start, Billy was conscious of Bertram"s frowning disapproval of her frock.
"You don"t like it, of course, dear, and I don"t blame you," she smiled remorsefully.
"Oh, I like it--that is, I did, when it was new," rejoined her husband, with apologetic frankness. "But, dear, didn"t you have anything else?
This looks almost--well, mussy, you know."
"No--well, yes, maybe there were others," admitted Billy; "but this was the quickest and easiest to get into, and it all came just as I was getting Baby ready for bed, you know. I am a fright, though, I"ll acknowledge, so far as clothes go. I haven"t had time to get a thing since Baby came. I must get something right away, I suppose."
"Yes, indeed," declared Bertram, with emphasis, hurrying his wife into the waiting automobile.
Billy had to apologize again at the theater, for the curtain had already risen on the ancient quarrel between the houses of Capulet and Montague, and Billy knew her husband"s special abhorrence of tardy arrivals.
Later, though, when well established in their seats, Billy"s mind was plainly not with the players on the stage.
"Do you suppose Baby _is_ all right?" she whispered, after a time.
"Sh-h! Of course he is, dear!"
There was a brief silence, during which Billy peered at her program in the semi-darkness. Then she nudged her husband"s arm ecstatically.
"Bertram, I couldn"t have chosen a better play if I"d tried. There are _five_ acts! I"d forgotten there were so many. That means you can telephone four times!"
"Yes, dear." Bertram"s voice was sternly cheerful.
"You must be sure they tell you exactly how Baby is."
"All right, dear. Sh-h! Here"s Romeo."
Billy subsided. She even clapped a little in spasmodic enthusiasm.
Presently she peered at her program again.
"There wouldn"t be time, I suppose, to telephone between the scenes,"
she hazarded wistfully. "There are sixteen of those!"
"Well, hardly! Billy, you aren"t paying one bit of attention to the play!"
"Why, of course I am," whispered Billy, indignantly. "I think it"s perfectly lovely, and I"m perfectly contented, too--since I found out about those five acts, and as long as I _can"t_ have the sixteen scenes," she added, settling back in her seat.
As if to prove that she was interested in the play, her next whisper, some time later, had to do with one of the characters on the stage.
"Who"s that--the nurse? Mercy! We wouldn"t want her for Baby, would we?"
In spite of himself Bertram chuckled this time. Billy, too, laughed at herself. Then, resolutely, she settled into her seat again.
The curtain was not fairly down on the first act before Billy had laid an urgent hand on her husband"s arm.
"Now, remember; ask if he"s waked up, or anything," she directed. "And be sure to say I"ll come right home if they need me. Now hurry."
"Yes, dear." Bertram rose with alacrity. "I"ll be back right away."
"Oh, but I don"t want you to hurry _too_ much," she called after him, softly. "I want you to take plenty of time to ask questions."
"All right," nodded Bertram, with a quizzical smile, as he turned away.
Obediently Bertram asked all the question she could think of, then came back to his wife. There was nothing in his report that even Billy could disapprove of, or worry about; and with almost a contented look on her face she turned toward the stage as the curtain went up on the second act.
"I love this balcony scene," she sighed happily.
Romeo, however, had not half finished his impa.s.sioned love-making when Billy clutched her husband"s arm almost fiercely.
"Bertram," she fairly hissed in a tragic whisper, "I"ve just happened to think! Won"t it be awful when Baby falls in love? I know I shall just hate that girl for taking him away from me!"
"Sh-h! _Billy!_" expostulated her husband, choking with half-stifled laughter. "That woman in front heard you, I know she did!"
"Well, I shall," sighed Billy, mournfully, turning back to the stage.
""Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night, till it be morrow,""
sighed Juliet pa.s.sionately to her Romeo.
"Mercy! I hope not," whispered Billy flippantly in Bertram"s ear. "I"m sure I don"t want to stay here till to-morrow! I want to go home and see Baby."
"_Billy!_" pleaded Bertram so despairingly, that Billy, really conscience-smitten, sat back in her seat and remained, for the rest of the act, very quiet indeed.
Deceived by her apparent tranquillity, Bertram turned as the curtain went down.
"Now, Billy, surely you don"t think it"ll be necessary to telephone so soon as this again," he ventured.
Billy"s countenance fell.
"But, Bertram, you _said_ you would! Of course if you aren"t willing to--but I"ve been counting on hearing all through this horrid long act, and--"
"Goodness me, Billy, I"ll telephone every minute for you, of course, if you want me to," cried Bertram, springing to his feet, and trying not to show his impatience.
He was back more promptly this time.
"Everything O. K.," he smiled rea.s.suringly into Billy"s anxious eyes.
"Delia said she"d just been up, and the little chap was sound asleep."
To the man"s unbounded surprise, his wife grew actually white.