Adelaide had kept them all, locked behind glass and in full view of the child's eyes night and day, that the shame of those past destructive moments might guard her from their repetition and help her to understand her temper and herself.

I had always thought it cruel of Adelaide, one of the evidences of the flint-like streak which ran through her otherwise generous and upright nature.

But its awful prophecy was what affected me most now; for destruction had fallen on something more tender than aught that cabinet held.
Adelaide's heart! And Carmel acknowledged it--acknowledged that it should be there, with what else she had trampled upon and crushed in her white heat of rage.

I could not doubt her guilt, after this.

Whatever peace her forgetfulness had brought--whatever innocent longing after Adelaide--the wild cry of those first few hours, ere yet the impressions of her awful experience had succumbed to disease, revealed her secret and showed the workings of her conscience.