The singing abruptly cut off. "Must you keep interrupting me?" Billy sounded mildly irritated, though Ragdoll himself wasn't anywhere in sight.

A brief pause as he listened to an inaudible reply. "Yes, that's very nice, but I need to practice."

Another pause. From here one might think he was talking on the telephone. "All right, ten minutes. But if I'm accused of slacking I'm blaming you fully, dear Doll." There was the sound of a glass of water being poured.