But before doing so she opened the little desk that stood in the corner of their sitting-room, of which the key was always in her pocket, and took out everything that it contained.

There were many letters there, of which most were on matters of business--letters which in few houses would come into the hands of such a one as Nina Balatka, but which, through the weakness of her father's health, had come into hers.

Many of these she now read; some few she tore and burned in the stove, and others she tied in bundles and put back carefully into their place.

There was not a paper in the desk which did not pass under her eye, and as to which she did not come to some conclusion, either to keep it or to burn it.

There were no love-letters there.