The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-02-08
(H Out Of y g
VI &He Night
BY Mrs. BAlLLIE REYNOLDS,

] FVCI ~
out of doors into the night,
On TO the maze
OF the wildwood ways,
Not turning to lett nor right
From the pathway. blind of sight
Now-now'-- door is heard;
Hark. the stairs, and near
Nearer-and here
Now and, at call the third
She enters without a word.
Robert Browning, Mesmerism.
For more than a mile that light
had cheered on the wayfarer, eX.
haustion notwithstanding.
When it WAS eXtinguished some
thing like despair took possession OF
the benighted wanderer.
She stopped short in the rutty
lane, the water creaking in her
soaked shoes, and dripping down her
white face. Then a last flicker OF
natures instinct of self-preservation
bounded her on; for the throbbing
in her raw feet warned her thai,
should she sink to earth, she would
not have the power to raise herself.
The road in which she walked
could not have been a high-road,
for in between the wheel-furrows
were rough flints, grass grown.
The rain descended upon the black
fir trees which bordered the way
with roar that might have been
the roaring of the sea beating dul-
ly upon the ear
The wind made noise enough to
drown all other sound. 1t was un-
speakably cold and biting, and seem
ed to blow from all points of the
compass. There was no moon, the
blackness of the night was impen-
etrable. 1t was quite likely that
the house where the light had been
might be passed unseen in the uni
versal gloom.
TIE thought added a kind of pas
sion of despair. Hunger and cold,
fatigue and fear, drive hard and
mercilessly. She stumbled on-and
suddenly, with a blacker darkness
than the thick night, the house
loomed up before her
It was no mere cottage long,
low building, surrounded by an old
brick wall. Her bare hand trailing
along the wet brick, felt gap, saw
glimmer of white-a gate The
numb fingers seemed fumbling for
long time. first one side of the
gate and then the other before the
latch was found and lifted. There
lay beyond newly graveled sweep.
all one yellow slop of liquid mud,
with deep puddles here and there.
AS the latch fell with click be-
hind the intruder, she eXhaled
breath of thankfulness; for the light
which had just been eXtinguished
the light which had been visible
from the road-had evidently shone
through the semi-circular fanight
over the door; but in a room TO
the right of this door lamp still
burned, hidden hitherto by the in
teIvening wall. Gratitude to the pee
pie, whoever they were, who sat up
to such an hour-it must have been
past nidnight-welled up in her.
The house could not be made out,
but it was not so pitch dark here
as in the tree-shadowed lane. Dimly
the shapes of big rAcks in the yard
beyond, showed up against the sky.
1t ought to have been a farmhouse.
But its old-fashoned garden had been
turned into a carriage drive: and the
light that streamed through the bis
suit-colored window curtain was rose
shaded.
The old,fashioned porch had not
been removed. There were seats
within, on either side. The visitor
took the knocker. and knocked as
vigorously as she could-with an
expiring effort of failing strength.
There was a minute of silence; A
minute in which tnat house. and the