She did not take off her dressing gown, for she said she would only stay a while and then go back to her own bed.

As she lay there in my arms, and I in hers the flapping and buffeting came to the window again.

She was startled and a little frightened, and cried out, "What is that ?" I tried to pacify her, and at last succeeded, and she lay quiet.

But I could hear her poor dear heart still beating terribly.

After a while there was the howl again out in the shrubbery, and shortly after there was a crash at the window, and a lot of broken glass was hurled on the floor.
The window blind blew back with the wind that rushed in, and in the aperture of the broken panes there was the head of a great, gaunt gray wolf.
Mother cried out in a fright, and struggled up into a sitting posture, and clutched wildly at anything that would help her.