Her mother shaded her face with her hand, and neither spoke nor moved.

Kitty waited a little, then moved slowly towards the door of her bit of a bedroom; it was moonlight, so she needed no candle.
"Good-night, mother," she found courage to say at last.
"Good-night;" and her mother's voice sounded strangely, coming from behind the closely-held hand.
There was something like a great sob in Kitty's throat as she went to her room that night; in her heart was a great longing for mother-love.
She would have liked to kiss her mother good-night, but she felt how queerly that would look; even to _say_ good-night was something very unusual.

So she knelt down beside her bed, and prayed for her mother.
I don't think Mr.Holbrook knew that the few kind words which he spoke to Kitty Lewis, on her way home from prayer-meeting, were seeds which were going to spring up and bear fruit unto everlasting life..