Many years later she heard of Leslie 's marriage ; then came news of his death , after a life that had not fulfilled his dreams for him . Nothing more she had heard or known -- nothing to this day , when she had seen his daughter pass her by unseeing in the beech hollow . `` His daughter ! And she might have been MY daughter , '' murmured the Old Lady . `` Oh , if I could only know her and love her -- and perhaps win her love in return ! But I can not . I could not have Leslie Gray 's daughter know how poor I am -- how low I have been brought . I could not bear that . And to think she is living so near me , the darling -- just up the lane and over the hill . I can see her go by every day -- I can have that dear pleasure , at least . But oh , if I could only do something for her -- give her some little pleasure ! It would be such a delight . '' When the Old Lady happened to go into her spare room that evening , she saw from it a light shining through a gap in the trees on the hill . She knew that it shone from the Spencers ' spare room . So it was Sylvia 's light . The Old Lady stood in the darkness and watched it until it went out -- watched it with a great sweetness breathing in her heart , such as risen from old rose-leaves when they are stirred . She fancied Sylvia moving about her room , brushing and braiding her long , glistening hair -- laying aside her little trinkets and girlish adornments -- making her simple preparations for sleep . When the light went out the Old Lady pictured a slight white figure kneeling by the window in the soft starshine , and the Old Lady knelt down then and there and said her own prayers in fellowship . She said the simple form of words she had always used ; but a new spirit seemed to inspire them ; and she finished with a new petition -- `` Let me think of something I can do for her , dear Father -- some little , little thing that I can do for her . '' The Old Lady had slept in the same room all her life -- the one looking north into the spruces -- and loved it ; but the next day she moved into the spare room without a regret .
It was to be her room after this ; she must be where she could see Sylvia 's light , she put the bed where she could lie in it and look XXXXX that earth star which had suddenly shone across the twilight shadows of her heart .
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