the card was left in the morning, beside the empty cup. there was no name on it. there had been three guests in the house and any of them might have written it; the handwriting was upright and careful and looked like the handwriting of a person who was trying, in this instance, to make their handwriting look like no one's in particular.
the host kept the card on the dresser for a week, then for a month, then in a small box behind the dresser, where she also kept a ribbon and a thimble and the receipt from her wedding shoes. she did not need to know who had written it. it was warmer, she thought, to be thanked by no one in particular, which is to say, by the room.