Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/377

 "I gotta face like a Dutch cheese!" she announced. The confinement and anxieties of the last few days had left it tired and colorless. So she discreetly switched out all the lights except the small bulb beside the dresser. But even that did not quite satisfy her. She was fumbling through her dresser drawer for a rouge-tube when a knock sounded on the door.

Even the younger girl, as Sadie motioned for her to answer that knock, was not unconscious of the momentary exaltation which shone in her companion's tired eyes.

Sadie sank into a chair at the end of the shadowy room. It astonished her that the mere thought of seeing Wilsnach again could so upset her. As she watched the door and told herself that with its opening all her world would surely change, she was conscious not only of quickened pulses and equally quickened breathing, but also of a vague yet vast weight being lifted away from her spirit. Thereafter, she knew, everything would be different. Wilsnach would be with her.

She leaned forward, listening for his voice. She watched the striped blue and white back of the girl in the doorway, vaguely wondering why the familiar