sighed Juliet passionately 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 0. K.,'' he smiled reassuringly 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.
``Up! Up!'' she exclaimed. ``Do you mean that Delia went down-stairs to _stay_, and left my baby up there alone?''
``But, Billy, she said he was all right,''
murmured Bertram, softly, casting uneasy sidelong glances at his too interested neighbors.
`` `All right'! Perhaps he was, _then_--but he may not be, later. Delia should stay in the next room all the time, where she could hear the least thing.''
``Yes, dear, she will, I'm sure, if you tell her to,'' soothed Bertram, quickly. ``It'll be all right next time.''
Billy shook her head. She was obviously near to crying.
``But, Bertram, I can't stand it to sit here enjoying myself all safe and comfortable, and know that Baby is _alone_ up there in that great big room!
Please, _please_ won't you go and telephone Delia to go up _now_ and stay there?''
Bertram, weary, sorely tried, and increasingly aware of those annoyingly interested neighbors, was on the point of saying a very decided no; but a glance into Billy's pleading eyes settled it.
Without a word he went back to the telephone.
The curtain was up when he slipped into his seat, very red of face. In answer to Billy's hurried whisper he shook his head; but in the short pause between the first and second scenes he said, in a low voice:
``I'm sorry, Billy, but I couldn't get the house at all.''
``Couldn't get them! But you'd just been talking with them!''
``That's exactly it, probably. I had just telephoned, so they weren't watching for the bell.
Anyhow, I couldn't get them.''
``Then you didn't get Delia at all!''
``Of course not.''
``And Baby is still--all alone!''
``But he's all right, dear. Delia's keeping watch of him.''
For a moment there was silence; then, with clear decisiveness carne Billy's voice.
``Bertram, I am going home.''
``Billy!''
``I am.''
``Billy, for heaven's sake don't be a silly goose!
The play's half over already. We'll soon be going, anyway.''
Billy's lips came together in a thin little determined line.
``Bertram, I am going home now, please,'' she said. ``You needn't come with me; I can go alone.''
Bertram said two words under his breath which it was just as well, perhaps, that Billy--and the neighbors--did not hear; then he gathered up their wraps and, with Billy, stalked out of the theater.
At home everything was found to be absolutely as it should be. Bertram, Jr., was peacefully sleeping, and Delia, who had come up from downstairs, was sewing in the next room.
``There, you see,'' observed Bertram, a little sourly.
Billy drew a long, contented sigh.
``Yes, I see; everything is all right. But that's exactly what I wanted to do, Bertram, you know --to _see for myself_,'' she finished happily.
And Bertram, looking at her rapt face as she hovered over the baby's crib, called himself a brute and a beast to mind _anything_ that could make Billy look like that.
