ned, she would not let Bertram begin to chafe
against those bonds!

Having arrived at this heroic and (to her) eminently satisfactory state
of mind, Billy turned from the window and fell to work on a piece of
manuscript music.

"'Brush up against other interests,'" she admonished herself sternly, as
she reached for her pen.

Theoretically it was beautiful; but practically--

Billy began at once to be that oak. Not an hour after she had first seen
the fateful notice of "When the Honeymoon Wanes," Bertram's ring sounded
at the door down-stairs.

Bertram always let himself in with his latchkey; but, from the first
of Billy's being there, he had given a peculiar ring at the bell which
would bring his wife flying to welcome him if she were anywhere in the
house. To-day, when the bell sounded, Billy sprang as usual to her feet,
with a joyous "There's Bertram!" But the next moment she fell back.

"Tut, tut, Billy Neilson Henshaw! Learn to cultivate a comfortable
indifference to your husband's comings and goings," she whispered
fiercely. Then she sat down and fell to work again.

A moment later she heard her husband's voice talking to some one--Pete,
she surmised. "Here? You say she's here?" Then she heard Bertram's quick
step on the stairs. The next minute, very quietly, he came to her door.

"Ho!" he ejaculated gayly, as she rose to receive his kiss. "I thought
I'd find you asleep, when you didn't hear my ring."

Billy reddened a little.

"Oh, no, I wasn't asleep."

"But you didn't hear--" Bertram stopped abruptly, an odd look in his
eyes. "Maybe you did hear it, though," he corrected.

Billy colored more confusedly. The fact that she looked so distressed
did not tend to clear Bertram's face.

"Why, of course, Billy, I didn't mean to insist on your coming to meet
me," he began a little stiffly; but Billy interrupted him.

"Why, Bertram, I just love to go to meet you," she maintained
indignantly. Then, remembering just in time, she amended: "That is,
I did love to meet you, until--" With a sudden realization that she
certainly had not helped matters any, she came to an embarrassed pause.

A puzzled frown showed on Bertram's face.

"You did love to meet me until--" he repeated after her; then his face
changed. "Billy, you aren't--you _can't_ be laying up last night against
me!" he reproached her a little irritably.

"Last night? Why, of course not," retorted Billy, in a panic at the
bare mention of the "tes