She shut the door as softly and quickly again, and got into bed with a kind of awe upon her.

She had certainly heard people stand up in the pulpit and make prayers, and it seemed suitable that other people should bend upon cushions and bow heads while they did so; but that in a common-roofed house, on no particular occasion, anybody should kneel down to pray when he was alone and for his own sake, was something that had never come under her knowledge; and it gave her a disagreeable sort of shock.

She lay awake and watched to see how soon Mrs.Landholm's light would go away; it died, the faint moonlight stole in through the window unhindered; and still there was no stir in the next room.

Elizabeth watched and wondered; till after a long half hour she heard a light step in the kitchen and then a very light fall of the latch.
She sprang up to look at the moon; it had but little risen; she calculated the time of its rising for several nights back, and made up her mind that it must be long past twelve.

And this a woman who was tired every day with her day's work and had been particularly tired to-night! for Elizabeth had noticed it.