Add to this that he was
long-sighted and often missed a candle several times before he
succeeded in snuffing it, whereupon the whole of the opening and
shutting process had to be repeated, sometimes with no other result
than that of snuffing the candle out, which had then to be pulled from
its socket and applied to the next for re-illumination. But nothing
could be farther from Annie's mood than a laugh or even a smile, though
she gazed as if she were fascinated by the snuffers, which were
dreadfully like one of the demons in a wood-cut of the Valley of the
Shadow of Death in the _Pilgrim's Progress_ without boards, which had
belonged to her father.
When all had ceased--when the prayer, the singing, and the final
benediction were over, Annie crept out into the dark street as if into
the Outer Darkness. She felt the rain falling upon something hot, but
she hardly knew that it was her own cheeks that were being wetted by
the heavy drops. Her first impulse was to run to Alec and Curly, put
her arms about their necks, and entreat them to flee from the wrath to
come. But she could not find them to-night. She must go home. For
herself she was not much afraid; for there was a place where prayer was
heard as certainly as at the mercy-seat of old--a little garret room
namely, with holes in the floor, out of which came rats; but with a
door as well, in at which came the prayed-for cat.
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