She was conscious only of an eager and thrilling expectancy.
She was about to relapse into slumber when a gliding sound caught her ear, and in a moment she was listening again, with all her senses alert.

Was it fancy?
or was there a soft footfall, and a sound as of a hand drawn over the whitewashed wall of the passage?
A board creaked, and Morva sat up, and strained her ears to listen.

After a stillness of some moments, again there was the soft footfall and the gliding hand on the wall.

She rose and quietly crept into the passage just in time to see a dark figure entering the preacher's room.
Who could it be?
Intense curiosity was the feeling uppermost in her mind, and this alone prevented her calling Ann.

Standing a few moments in breathless silence, she heard the slow opening of a drawer; another pause of eager listening, while the stealthy footsteps seemed to be returning towards the doorway.
At this moment the moon emerged from behind a cloud, and in her light Morva saw a sight which astonished her, for coming from the preacher's room a well-known form stood plainly revealed.