I only relate these trifling particulars to show you how little worth keeping such a card could be, in such circumstances as ours.

Naturally enough, I threw it away from me across the table, meaning to throw it on the floor.

It fell short, close to the place in which Magdalen was sitting.

She took it up, looked at it, and immediately declared that she would not have had this perfectly worthless thing destroyed for the world.

She was almost angry with me for having thrown it away; almost angry with Miss Garth for asking what she could possibly want with it! Could there be any plainer proof than this that our misfortunes--falling so much more heavily on her than on me--have quite unhinged her, and worn her out?
Surely her words and looks are not to be interpreted against her, when she is not sufficiently mistress of herself to exert her natural judgment--when she shows the unreasonable petulance of a child on a question which is not of the slightest importance.
"A little after eleven we went upstairs to try if we could get some rest.
"I drew aside the curtain of my window and looked out.