The house was quiet, and the sound attracted my full attention.

I raised myself and stood listening, hoping that this might be the doctor, who had not been that day.
The footsteps passed the landing below, but at the first stair of the next flight the person, whoever it was, stumbled, and made a considerable noise.

At that, or it might be a moment later, the step still ascending, I heard a sudden rustling behind me, and, turning quickly with a start, saw my mother sitting up in bed.

Her eyes were open, and she seemed fully conscious; which she had not been for days, nor indeed since the last conversation I have recorded.

But her face, though it was now sensible, was pinched and white, and so drawn with mortal fear that I believed her dying, and sprang to her, unable to construe otherwise the pitiful look in her straining eyes.
'Madame,' I said, hastily passing my arm round her, and speaking with as much encouragement as I could infuse into my voice, 'take comfort.