While Godfrey and Nancy are dancing, Godfrey's wife Molly is walking through the snow toward Raveloe, carrying her child in her arms. Her addiction to opium, far more than her husband's neglect, is the cause of her present ragged appearance. Nevertheless, she intends to revenge herself on Godfrey by appearing at the dance and revealing that she is his wife. Molly started out early, but the snow has held her back, and now she becomes too tired to go on. To comfort her, she takes the last remnant of her opium, which only increases her weakness, and at last she sinks down in the snow in a stupor.
The child slips down into the snow. It discovers a bright light coming across the night and toddles toward it. The light comes from the open door of the weaver's cottage, where Silas stands unconscious, in one of his fits. He has been told that to watch the new year in is good luck and may bring his money back, and he has been watching out the door for some sign of the gold.
When Silas recovers, he thinks for a moment that his gold has come back, for on the hearth he sees a blurred vision of a heap of coins. When he touches them, he finds they are the golden hair of a sleeping child. The surprise brings him the memory of his little sister and of Lantern Yard. Then the child wakes. It cries because its shoes are wet, and its crying leads Silas at last to the body outside in the snow.
