My one desire is to enter into an arrangement which shall be as just toward you, as it is toward me.

I propose that Kitty shall live with her father one half of the year, and shall return to her mother's care for the other half If there is any valid objection to this, I confess I fail to see it." Mrs.Linley could remain silent no longer.
"Does he see no difference," she broke out, "between his position and mine?
What consolation--in God's name, what consolation is left to me for the rest of my life but my child?
And he threatens to separate us for six months in every year! And he takes credit to himself for an act of exalted justice on his part! Is there no such thing as shame in the hearts of men ?" Under ordinary circumstances, her mother would have tried to calm her.
But Mrs.Presty had turned to the next page of the letter, at the moment when her daughter spoke.
What she found written, on that other side, produced a startling effect on her.

She crumpled the letter up in her hand, and threw it into the fireplace.

It fell under the grate instead of into the grate.

With amazing activity for a woman of her age, she ran across the room to burn it.