While doing this he thought he heard a sound below, and instantly dropped noiselessly from the window.

He had scarcely done so when the door of his room opened and Mother Peter came in.

She looked at him sharply, and then retired without speaking.
All the next day Andy listened after Mother Peter, waiting to hear her go out.

But she did not leave the house until after he was asleep in the evening.
On the next day, after waiting until almost noon, the child's impatience of confinement grew so strong that he could no longer defer his meditated escape from the window, for ever since he had looked over the sash and discovered how it was fastened down, his mind had been running on this thing.

He had noticed that Mother Peter's visits to his room were made after about equal intervals of time, and that after she gave him his dinner she did not come up stairs again for at least an hour.
This had been brought, and he was again alone.
For nearly five minutes after the woman went out, he sat by the untasted food, his head bent toward the door, listening.