Olive Higgins Prouty

“ Reba mounted the steps. As she did so, she heard a loud raucous laugh from within—a man's laugh, followed by the high shrill cackle of a woman. Looking through the open door of the "Grand Hotel," Reba saw near the end of its dimly lighted corridor a sign protruding, reading, "Bar." She hesitated, turning toward the dark road again. ”

“ Her breath came with difficulty in little gasps, and when in the distance she saw approaching a reeling man harmlessly drunk, she thought she should scream with the horror of the place and the hour, and the rain, and she, all unprotected stumbling on blindly, she knew not where, possibly into even worse terrors than she had left behind. ”

“ The realization that she would not be there laid its cold hold upon Reba's drowsy consciousness. She sat up abruptly. Her absence would be sure to be observed. Mamie would carry coffee and toast on a tray up to her room within half an hour, as she often did if she slept over. She would find the room empty! The bed undisturbed! At half-past nine, a short hour and a half from now, when prayers were held in the Alliance parlors, conducted this month by Miss Ellsworth, Mamie would, no doubt, report her absence to the General Secretary! ”

“ And if finally she was allowed a second trial, could she, she asked herself, endure meeting Chadwick Booth two and three times a week, as he passed in and out of the classrooms? He could not well give up his classes at the Alliance. It was fall, the beginning of a busy new year. Classes were just being formed, and doctors were greatly in demand with their ranks already depleted by the ever-increasing number of units sailing for France.
"No, I can't go back," whispered Reba again. "I can't ever go back. But oh——" She looked despairingly about the unlovely room. "Of course I can't stay here! ”