must always have something to talk about."

But this "member of the other sex next whom she was seated at the
festive board" was not at all affected by her attempt to make the
evening pleasant as Arethusa had been led by the little book to believe
he would be; for after a momentary stare, he began to laugh.

He went through all the gamut of mirth. He gurgled. He giggled. He
shrieked. He roared. And he even pounded on the table.

"Oh, but this is rich!" he gasped. "My word! But this is rich! It's the
very richest thing I ever heard!"

His unseemly merriment attracted the attention of nearly everybody
around them.

Arethusa was rather startled by his laughter at first, and then she was
infuriated; for she realized that it was laughter directed straight at
her. Timothy could have told Mr. Watts that it was very unsafe to laugh
at Arethusa; that she hated nothing in the world so much as to be
laughed at. Her eyes darkened with anger, and the mirthful one was
given the full battery of their wrathful blazing.

But he did not even pause. He laughed on and on, uncontrollably.

So she reached over and pinched him with all the power of strong young
fingers on the very fleshiest part of his arm.

His laughter stopped abruptly. "Say," he exclaimed, "that hurt like
fury!"

"I meant it to hurt!" breathed Arethusa, and she turned as far away
from him as was possible, owing to the fact that their chairs were so
close together.

She was trembling all over with her rage, and he mistook it for
weeping.

"I didn't mean to make you cry, Miss Worthington," he began.

Her angry dark eyes flashed around at him for a moment. "I'm not
crying!" she announced with emphasis, and then turned away from him
again.

But that one brief glance had shown him how far she was from tears.
"Well, I most certainly didn't mean to make you mad," he had only to
change the words of his apology. "But ... that was funny!"

"Why?" she demanded, peremptorily, half turning back to face him.

"It just was! You ask your father!" Arethusa's expression remained most
unrelenting. "But I really do beg your pardon, in all humbleness, for
laughing at you. It was horribly rude of me, I'll have to admit, and
I'm certainly sorry that I did it. So do forgive me this time, and
let's go on being friends. Please...." he coaxed.

Arethusa softened, just the least bit. "But why was it so funny, what I
said? You didn't tell me. Oughtn't I to have said it?"

"It wa