Sentence:  When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped ; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs <WSD>kneeling</WSD> on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, and her pretty little Alsatian maid beside her, laying a log across the andirons. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To rest on one's bent knees, sometimes only one; to move to such a position.