to drop the formal, "Mr. Watts.") "I wasn't thinking about my feet just
then. I was worrying about Mr. Bennet, He's real sick tonight, and he
just went out somewhere. Do you reckon I'd better go see what's the
matter with him?"

"Well, of all things!" Billy seized her forcibly around the waist and
swung her back into the throng of dancers. "There's nothing the matter
with that nut! He's probably off enjoying himself in his own sweet
way."

But Arethusa wrenched herself away from his grasp; her quick anger
flared.

"You just take that back right now, Billy Watts! Mr. Bennet's not a
nut. And he's sick, he told me so himself! If you don't take it back, I
won't dance another step with you, not one!"

Billy laughed, good-naturedly. "I didn't say he wasn't sick, did I? But
you don't have to trail around after him nursing him; he's plenty old
enough, and ugly enough to take care of himself."

"Billy Watts! You are perfectly horrid!"

"Oh, come on, Arethusa, and stop getting all up in the air over
nothing!" He took hold of her again, but she jerked angrily away.
"Don't be a goose," he added, "everybody in the room's looking at you!"

"I don't care a bit if they are!"

"Do you want me to run out and look up your sick friend and hold his
head or anything? I will, if it'll please you very much! Because I sure
didn't mean to set you off like this! Come on now, Arethusa, and be a
better sport!"

This offer to go look after the suffering Mr. Bennet, although of a
wording hardly as respectful as she considered seemly, mollified
Arethusa to the extent of finishing out this dance with Billy. But it
was not at all necessary that he actually carry out his offer when the
dance was really over, for just as the last strains of music were
sounding, Mr. Bennet re-appeared from the direction of the hall.

Arethusa left Billy abruptly, standing open-mouthed in the middle of
the floor at the suddenness of her departure, and without a single word
of apology for leaving him, to greet Mr. Bennet with outstretched hands
and anxious inquiry into the state of his immediate physical being. The
answer was reassuring and one calculated to raise her spirits. Mr.
Bennet believed he felt much better. Arethusa beamed.

"Do you want to dance this with me?" asked Mr. Bennet, then; for just
at that very moment the music started once more.

"Do you feel well enough to be dancing?" Anxiety and solicitude were in
voice and manner.

"Yes, indeed. It