One of the smaller children opened the sitting-room door just then and came into the kitchen.

The child wore a very clean pinafore in token of the day.

She came and sat on Eliza's knee.

The door was left ajar; instead of stray words and unintelligible sentences, all the talk of the sitting-room was now the common property of those in the kitchen.
In beginning to hear a conversation already in full flow, it is a few moments before the interchange of remarks and interrogations makes sense to us.

Eliza only came to understand what was being talked of when the visitor said "No, I'm afraid there's no doubt about the poor girl's death.