Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-12
in his bathrobe, yawning.
Hello" he said, GROSSLY.
"Good morning, Billy"

II believe I've heard your voice once before"
"Oh, that is nice of you to remember. Ones mind
is often cloudy on Sunday morning too. What do
you thnk?"
81 believe you're woman so I'd best not tell you
kind of joke on me-"
Then the voice suddenly became troubled, so
earnest and eloquent that Billy leaned, with a
quckened pulse the instrument
"oh, please don't think that" it pleaded 'If there
is any joke about this it is all and it's very
miserable joke at best. can't tell you what it is
and please don't try to guess Did you wait for me
the other night?"
'I home all the evening" said Billy cautiously
"And who Gamer"
Nobody"
"Nobody?"
Nobody at all"
minded the voice, gently.
Billy hung up with a slam and went back to bed.
He tried to sleep, but could not 81 said l
body" repeated the voice. insistently. Stuff"
growled Billy and turned his other side.
This was the beginning of Billy Millers courtship
voice that said the most amazing things, and then
clicked off into silence 1t rang up every two three
DAYS sometimes in the morning. sometimes in the
evening. and very often in Biy's absence, Lokari
could have testified.
At first Billy was annoyed later he became resign
ed and then interested, that at last he found him
self listening eagerly for the telephone bell and he
who ed and
aroused vain expectations. He had relinquished the
joke theory. 1t did not seem probable that any one
would persist in a joke for six weeks, when there
was satisfaction to be gained. The owner of the
voice told him that she had wanted to know him
and could find no other way Billy began to believe
her, but he not vain man, and wondered. He
knew that these things happened to matinee idols
and popular concert pianists, but he had been
anything more noted than the captain of college
football team four years before. There was no rea-
why woman should seek him out with such a
blatanty hattering statement He felt the force Of
the fattery though he succumbed less to that than
to the personality in that soft feminine voice.
At the end of three months Billy in love.
1t was maddenng to make love to inanimate in
strument Of and metal and he rebelled ercely.
During thirty odd telephone interviews he had
discovered nothing concerning the unknown but that
she had cared enough for him to make him care ten
times much for her. At this stage in the affair
he began to realize, in measure, his utter help
essness. The girl held every trump and the key
to the whole situation, which her identity.
She guarded that with the utmost care, and Billy
did not succeed in gaining the smallest clue Some
he fJad with and
that her call had from of the hotels the
avenue or a pay station on the upper West Side,
but this knowledge did not help him at all. He felt
that his position ludcrous. She knew how he
looked knew where he lived, knew everything about
him. He knew her voice-and that all He
grew nervous and restless He often flushed and
started when a woman touched him in crowd or
when he met the eyes of girl passing along the
street
II saw you to-day" she told him be stood
glaring helplessly into the receiver 'You out
of your club and drove south in cab. 1t about
four o'clock
Gust about that" said Billy, with miserable
laugh. Where were you?"
Crossing the avenue half block above"
"Will you be there tomorrow at the same hour?"
She gave the negative he expected: "You know
can't"
"T know you won't" he said bitterly.
Their interviews had of late lost the more imper-
sonal tone that had existed in the beginning. There
had been a time when the theaters, current events
and even the weather had furnished topic for
conversation Billy put such subjects aside now with
angry impatience. He argued hotly for his rights
and at times there was something that sounded like
tears in the voice at the other end of the wre Then
the affair to crisis suddenly day in early
winter. almost year after that first night when Bill
ly had waited in vain for his unknown guest.