About
eight o'clock
Evening closed in ; the sisters were left alone . Christa returned indolently to lounging upon the bed and reading her novel . If Ann had had less strength , she would have paced the floor of the outer room in impatience ; as it was she sat still by the table which held the beer and stitched her seam diligently . About eight o'clock she heard Toyner 's step . Was he going to haunt the house again in order to keep her from going out of it ? He came up to the door and came in . She was preparing herself to act just as if she did not know who had come , and did not take much notice of him ; but when he came up and she looked at his face in the lamp-light , she saw written in it the struggle that he had gone through .