She had left the room to fetch something.

Returning she noticed that the dusk had fallen, and was about to switch on the light when, in the rise and fall of the firelight, something that she saw made her pause.

She stood motionless by the door.
Angelina had turned in her chair; her eyes were gazing, with rapt attention, toward the purple dusk by the window.

She was listening.
Nurse, as she had often assured her friends, "was not cursed with imagination," but now fear held her so that she could not stir nor move save that her hand trembled against the wall paper.

The chatter of the fire, the shouts of some boys in the Square, the ringing of the bell of St.Matthew's for evensong, all these things came into the room.
Angelina, still listening, at last smiled; then, with a little sigh, sat back in her chair.
"Heavens! Miss 'Lina! What were you doing there?
How you frightened me!" Angelina left her chair, and went across to the window.