A lamp in a window by Truman Capote

The narrator is going to a wedding on a cold April day and shares his rides with a couple, Mr and Mrs Roberts. During the ceremony, Mr and Mrs Roberts drink a lot of alcohol; their passenger is circumspect about going home with them when they decide to leave, around 11pm. The husband and wife call each other names and the car zigzags. After a few miles, Mr Roberts gets lost after making a wrong turn and ends up on a dark country road. After that, they have an accident and the passenger takes the occasion to run away. He walks for half an hour without sighting a habitation, trying to reach the highway, until he notices a small cottage with a window lighted by a lamp. He walks quietly to the window and sees an old woman reading a book by a fireside, surrounded by cats. The storyteller knocks at the door, the woman opens and he asks for a phone after explaining the situation. The elderly woman doesn’t own a phone but she invites him in. She serves him some whiskey, which was left by her husband who died six years ago. The widow requests that the relater spends the night, in order for him to find a garage to fix the car in the morning. As Mrs Kelly asks for detail about the accident, her guest explains what exactly happened. She tells him that he was right to get out of the Roberts’ car, for her husband was ran over by a drunken driver. The two continue to talk about their favourite authors, and the narrator notices that the widow is a very witty person. They discuss many subjects until Mrs Kelly’s bedtime comes. Both of them go to bed and the elderly woman comes back to wish a good night to the storyteller, who lays awake thinking about the uncommon experience he just made. In the morning, the widow makes breakfast for her guest in her kitchen, where everything is on its last leg except the deep-freeze. Mrs Kelly asks her guest about cats, and he explains that he had owned one but that it died, and for his heart was broken by this he never had the courage to get another.
Mrs Kelly says that he should therefore understand why her deep-freeze is full of dead cats. She explains that she couldn’t bear to lose them completely. She laughs and adds that her guest must think she is a little bit crazy. On his way to the highway, the narrator thinks that Mrs Kelly might be a little bit crazy, but that she is also joyful, as a light in the window.