A NIGHT OFF
The Henshaw family did not return to the Strata until late in September. Billy said that the sea air seemed to agree so well with the baby it would be a pity to change until the weather became really too cool at the shore to be comfortable.
William came back from his fishing trip in August, and resumed his old habit of sleeping at the house and taking his meals at the club. To be sure, for a week he went back and forth between the city and the beach house; but it happened to be a time when Bertram, Jr., was cutting a tooth, and this so wore upon William's sympathy--William still could not help insisting it _might_ be a pin--that he concluded peace lay only in flight. So he went back to the Strata.
Bertram had stayed at the cottage all summer, painting industriously. Heretofore he had taken more of a vacation through the summer months, but this year there seemed to be nothing for him to do but to paint. He did not like to go away on a trip and leave Billy, and she declared she could not take the baby nor leave him, and that she did not need any trip, anyway.
``All right, then, we'll just stay at the beach, and have a fine vacation together,'' he had answered her.
As Bertram saw it, however, he could detect very little ``vacation'' to it. Billy had no time for anything but the baby. When she was not actually engaged in caring for it, she was studying how to care for it. Never had she been sweeter or dearer, and never had Bertram loved her half so well. He was proud, too, of her devotion, and of her triumphant success as a mother;but he did wish that sometimes, just once in a while, she would remember she was a wife, and pay a little attention to him, her husband.
Bertram was ashamed to own it, even to himself, but he was feeling just a little abused that summer; and he knew that, in his heart, he was actually getting jealous of his own son, in spite of his adoration of the little fellow. He told himself defensively that it was not to be expected that he should not want the love of his wife, the attentions of his wife, and the companionship of his wife--a part of the time. It was nothing more than natural that occasionally he should like to see her show some interest in subjects not mentioned in Mothers' Guides and Scientific Trainings of Infants; and he did not believe he could be blamed for wanting his residence to be a home for himself as well as a nursery for his offspring.
Even while he thus discontentedly argued with himself, however, Bertram called himself a selfish brute just to think such things when he had so dear and loving a wife as Billy, and so fine and splendid a baby as Bertram, Jr. He told himself, too, that very likely when they were back in their own house again, and when motherhood was not so new to her, Billy would not be so absorbed in the baby. She would return to her old interest in her husband, her music, her friends, and her own personal appearance. Meanwhile there was always, of course, for him, his painting. So he would paint, accepting gladly what crumbs of attention fell from the baby's table, and trust to the future to make Billy none the less a mother, perhaps, but a little more the wife.
Just how confidently he was counting on this coming change, Bertram hardly realized himself;but certainly the family was scarcely settled at the Strata before the husband gayly proposed one evening that he and Billy should go to the theater to see ``Romeo and Juliet.''
Billy was clearly both surprised and shocked.
``Why, Bertram, I can't--you know I can't!''
she exclaimed reprovingly.
Bertram's heart sank; but he kept a brave front.
``Why not?''
``What a question! As if I'd leave Baby!''
``But, Billy, dear, you'd be gone less than three hours, and you say Delia's the most careful of nurses.''
Billy's forehead puckered into an anxious frown.
``I can't help it. Something might happen to him, Bertram. I couldn't be happy a minute.''
``But, dearest, aren't you _ever_ going to leave him?'' demanded the young husband, forlornly.
``Why, yes, of course, when it's reasonable and necessary. I went out to the Annex yesterday afternoon. I was gone almost two whole hours.''
``Well, did anything happen?''
``N-no; but then I telephoned, you see, several times, so I _knew_ everything was all right.''
``Oh, well, if that's all you want, I could telephone, you know, between every act,'' suggested Bertram, with a sarcasm that was quite lost on the earnest young mother.
``Y-yes, you could do that, couldn't you?''
conceded Billy; ``and, of course, I _haven't_ been anywhere much, lately.''
``Indeed I could,'' agreed Bertram, with a promptness that carefully hid his surprise at her literal acceptance of what he had proposed as a huge joke. ``Come, is it a go? Shall I telephone to see if I can get seats?''
``You think Baby'll surely be all right?''
``I certainly do.''
``And you'll telephone home between every act?''
``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.
