I do not say George was right in this. Sociability is, to a certain extent, a duty, and one that ought not without the soundest reason to be shirked. George may have carried his reserve rather too far, but at any rate you will allow he erred on the right side, if he erred at all, and carried his purpose through with more honesty and success than poor Tom Drift had displayed in a very similar situation.
Now, however, his hermitage was in peril of a siege, and he quailed as he acknowledged the introduction offered him.
“How are you?” said Halliday, with all his own downrightness. “I and a lot of fellows have liked your playing, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t tell you so. How are you?”
“I’m quite well, thank you,” faltered George.
“You’re a freshman, I suppose?” asked Jim.
“No, I’m in my second year.”
“Are you? I thought I knew all the men in the college; but perhaps you live in the town?”
“No, I live in college.”
“Where are your rooms?” asked the astonished Jim.
“In, or rather under, H staircase,” replied George. “Perhaps you would know the place best as the ‘Mouse-trap.’”