"Would you mind telling me," inquired Arethusa, as courteously as
possible, "what these are?"

But her neighbor paid no attention.

She repeated her request, raising her voice a trifle. "Maybe he's
deaf," she thought.

And this time he turned, "I beg your pardon.... But did you speak to
me?"

"Yes," she replied, "I asked you to tell me what these were."

He stared at her, surprised into a direct reply, "Why, they're
oysters!"

"Oysters!"

Arethusa examined them critically. No wonder they had looked so
familiar! "But they're raw!" she exclaimed.

"It's an oyster cocktail! Of course they're raw!"

"But I never saw them this way before! I didn't know people ate raw
fish at Parties! I.... This is the Very First Party I ever went to,"
she explained. It was surely extenuation enough for any ignorance of
the customs of such gatherings!

His glance searched her, up and down. He struggled visibly with
amusement. It was all he could do not to laugh outright.

"I suppose you're visiting here?" he remarked, after awhile, when
speech was once more somewhat of a possibility.

Arethusa thought it was most polite of him to show this interest. She
nodded.

"I'm Arethusa Worthington."

"Arethusa Worthington!" The youth was all real interest and animation
at once. "Not Mr. Ross Worthington's daughter! Why, I ... I'm proud to
call him one of my best friends! I'm just crazy about that man! I met
him abroad. And so you're really his daughter! I certainly am glad to
meet you! Now, that I think, of it, I believe he did tell me the other
day that you were coming!"

Arethusa smiled all over, showing every dimple; she felt at home
immediately with any friend of her father's, self-announced though he
might be.

"My name's Watts, Miss Worthington," he continued, "William Watts. But
most people call me 'Billy.'"

"I don't know you quite well enough yet to call you 'Billy,'" she
replied, seriously reproving. "But wasn't it just dear that we happened
to sit next to each other?"

Mr. Watts enthusiastically agreed. And acquaintanceship established on
this firm foundation, he turned his attention once more to food.

"Don't you like oysters?"

"Yes, but they look so horrid! Ugh!" Arethusa shivered. "Generally, I
love 'em, but these are raw! I never ate any raw ones before!"

"Go ahead and try them," he urged in all friendliness. "If you like
them at all, you'll like them this way, too, I'll bet."

But she still hung bac