o
do."

"All right, dear," replied Aunt Hannah. "Did you get the tickets?"

"Yes, and the Greggorys will go. Oh, and Aunt Hannah!"

"Yes, dear."

"Please tell John to bring Peggy around early enough to-night so we can
go down and get the Greggorys. I told them we'd call for them."

"Very well, dear. I'll tell him."

"Thank you. How's the poor head?"

"Better, a little, I think."

"That's good. Won't you repent and go, too?"

"No--oh, no, indeed!"

"All right, then; good-by. I'm sorry!"

"So'm I. Good-by," sighed Aunt Hannah, as she hung up the receiver and
turned away.

It was after five o'clock when Billy got home, and so hurried were the
dressing and the dinner that Aunt Hannah forgot to mention Bertram's
telephone call till just as Billy was ready to start for the Greggorys'.

"There! and I forgot," she confessed. "Bertram called you up just after
you left this morning, my dear."

"Did he?" Billy's face was turned away, but Aunt Hannah did not notice
that.

"Yes. Oh, he didn't want anything special," smiled the lady,
"only--well, he did ask if you were all right this morning," she
finished with quiet mischief.

"Did he?" murmured Billy again. This time there was a little sound after
the words, which Aunt Hannah would have taken for a sob if she had not
known that it must have been a laugh.

Then Billy was gone.

At eight o'clock the doorbell rang, and a minute later Rosa came up
to say that Mr. Bertram Henshaw was down-stairs and wished to see Mrs.
Stetson.

Mrs. Stetson went down at once.

"Why, my dear boy," she exclaimed, as she entered the room; "Billy said
you had a banquet on for to-night!"

"Yes, I know; but--I didn't go." Bertram's face was pale and drawn. His
voice did not sound natural.

"Why, Bertram, you look ill! _Are_ you ill?" The man made an impatient
gesture.

"No, no, I'm not ill--I'm not ill at all. Rosa says--Billy's not here."

"No; she's gone to the opera with the Greggorys."

"The _opera!_" There was a grieved hurt in Bertram's voice that
Aunt Hannah quite misunderstood. She hastened to give an apologetic
explanation.

"Yes. She would have told you--she would have asked you to join them,
I'm sure, but she said you were going to a banquet. I'm _sure_ she said
so."

"Yes, I did tell her so--last night," nodded Bertram, dully.

Aunt Hannah frowned a little. Still more anxiously she endeavored to
explain to this disappointed lover why his sweetheart was not a