The hall was rattling with excitement. Hughie looked all around with a burning smile, promising all the entertainment of their lives. A stout fella, popular among the people. His life on the surface appeared joyous, full of novelty, mad-cap gaiety, intellectual challenge. But he did not like, although he thought himself a radical, to feel himself outside the comfort of the fold, to feel lonesome.
He padlocked the door for good measure. Bad form to forsake one’s friends, to leave a room without ceremony. Unheard-of. We’ve come this far—why turn back? We must all be prepared to make sacrifices. A rush of blood to his face, he cleared a way through the throng of people. Now the day of reckoning had come—sharp and sudden, with a vengeance. Be upstanding and charge your glasses.
Sources: New Oxford American Dictionary, Macquarie Dictionary