"I better not," he said.

He meant no offence; his trouble was only that he had not yet learned how to do as he pleased at a party and, at the same time, to seem polite about it.

"I guess I don't want to," he added.
"Very well!" And Miss Rennsdale instantly left him to his own devices.
He went to lurk in the wide doorway between the hall and the drawing-room--under such conditions the universal refuge of his sex at all ages.

There he found several boys of notorious shyness, and stood with them in a mutually protective group.

Now and then one of them would lean upon another until repelled by action and a husky "What's matter 'th you?
Get off o' me!" They all twisted their slender necks uneasily against the inner bands of their collars, at intervals, and sometimes exchanged facetious blows under cover.