The fact that Penrod had not gone near her did not make her culpability seem the less; in his gloomy heart he resolved not to ask her for one single dance.

He would not go near her.

He would not go near ANY OF 'EM! His eyes began to burn, and he swallowed heavily; but he was never one to succumb piteously to such emotion, and it did not even enter his head that he was at liberty to return to his own home.

Neither he nor any of his friends had ever left a party until it was officially concluded.
What his sufferings demanded of him now for their alleviation was not departure but action! Underneath the surface, nearly all children's parties contain a group of outlaws who wait only for a leader to hoist the black flag.

The group consists mainly of boys too shy to be at ease with the girls, but who wish to distinguish themselves in some way; and there are others, ordinarily well behaved, whom the mere actuality of a party makes drunken.