One would have said, to look at him, that he was not at the party by choice; and it was natural enough to think, with Susy Pettingill, that it must have been a freak of the dark girl's which brought him there, for he had the air of a shy and sad-hearted recluse.
It was hard to say what could have brought Elsie Venner to the party.
Hardly anybody seemed to know her, and she seemed not at all disposed to make acquaintances.

Here and there was one of the older girls from the Institute, but she appeared to have nothing in common with them.

Even in the schoolroom, it may be remembered, she sat apart by her own choice, and now in the midst of the crowd she made a circle of isolation round herself.

Drawing her arm out of her father's, she stood against the wall, and looked, with a strange, cold glitter in her eyes, at the crowd which moved and babbled before her.
The old Doctor came up to her by and by.
"Well, Elsie, I am quite surprised to find you here.

Do tell me how you happened to do such a good-natured thing as to let us see you at such a great party." "It's been dull at the mansion-house," she said, "and I wanted to get out of it.