l 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 sternl