"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?"