She would slip up-stairs to her, and make some excuse for doing so--ask her if she did not smell smoke, or something.

It seemed to her that if she did not hear another human voice, come in contact with something human, she should lose all control of herself.
Maria, little, slender, trembling girl, with all the hysterical fancies of her sex crowding upon her, all the sufferings of her sex waiting for her in the future, and with no mother to soften them, slipped out of bed, stole across her room, and opened the door with infinite caution.

Then she went up the stairs which led to the third story.

Both maids had rooms on the third story.

Josephine went home at night, and Hannah, the cook, had gone home with her after the return of the wanderers, and was to remain.