What do you want to know for ?" "I--I vote we don't go," said Georgie, coaxingly.

"I'm not going." "I know that." "Are you ?" and there was a tone of desperate pathos in the boy's voice.
"Haven't I told you, a hundred and fifty times, I _don't know_ ?" replied Dick, scarcely less desperate.
Heathcote gave it up, and joined the Den, who were waiting about, in anxious groups, near the door of the Hall, with their ornaments in their hands, ready to put on at a moment's notice if necessary.
Presently Dick strolled up and joined them.
Hurrah! he had not got his patent leather boots on, after all! A weight fell from the minds of half the beholders as they cast their eyes down at his dusty double soles.

And yet, if he wasn't going in, what was he hanging about there for?
Dick would have been very sorry if any of the Den had guessed what was passing in his mind.

He didn't know what to do.

If there had been no one but himself, it wouldn't have mattered.