"Good," said the Master, "now let us make the house fast!"
[Illustration with caption: 'I will ask you to choose between your
old home and your new home now']
So they closed and barred the shutters and locked and bolted the
front door.
Then they lighted their bedroom candles and bade each other good
night.
But as the Guest went along his dim corridor, the Master turned
and followed him very softly on tiptoe, watching.
Outside the house, in the darkness, there was a sound of many
shuffling feet and whispering voices.
When the Guest came to the side door he tried the latch, to see
that it was working freely. He moved the bolt, not forward into
its socket, but backward so that it should be no hindrance. In
the window beside the doorway he set his candle. So the house was
ready for late-comers.
Then the Guest sighed a little. "They are my old friends," he
murmured, "my dear old friends! I could not leave them out in the
cold. I am not responsible for what they do. Only I must my old
affection prove." So he sighed again and turned softly to his bed.
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