It was a sad and mournful evening.

He thought he would go out, for he found that he was not wanted; but a low drizzling rain prevented him.

Had he got wet he could not have changed his clothes, for they were all in the wardrobe in his wife's room.
All alone he sat till the shades of evening were hidden by the veil of night.
"But what sudden noise is that he hears within the house?
Why do those heavy steps press so rapidly against the stairs?
What feet are they which are so busy in the room above him?
He opens the sitting-room door, but he can see nothing.

He has been left there without a candle.

He peers up the stairs, but a faint glimmer of light shining through the keyhole of his wife's door is all that meets his eye.