friend
and companion among the servants, and she selected the housemaid
Sally, a good-natured, well-intentioned girl, but silly and ignorant
and inquisitive like herself, and it may be easily supposed how much
mischief these two foolish creatures occasioned, not only in the
family, but also among their neighbors.

It happened soon after, that for an offence which was the cause of
very great vexation to her brother, and was the occasion of his being
for a time deprived of the friendship of Sir Henry and Lady Askham,
two of Dr. Hammond's nearest and most intimate neighbors, her father
ordered Sophy, as a still further punishment, to be locked up in her
own room till the Sunday following. This was on Friday, and Sophy had
two days of solitude and imprisonment before her. The first day she
passed very dismally, but yet not unprofitably, for she felt truly
ashamed and sorry for her fault, and made many good resolutions of
endeavoring to cure herself of her mischievous propensity. The second
day she began to be somewhat more composed, and by degrees she was
able to amuse herself with watching the people in the street, which
was overlooked by the windows of her apartment, and she began, almost
unconsciously to herself, to indulge in her old habit of trying to
find out what everybody was doing, and in guessing where they were
going.

She had not long been engaged in watching her neighbors before her
curiosity was excited by the appearance of a servant on horseback, who
rode up to the door, and, after giving a little three-cornered note to
Dr. Hammond's footman, rode off. The servant she knew to be Mrs.
Arden's, an intimate friend of her father, and the note she
conjectured was an invitation to dinner, and the guessing what day the
invitation was for, and who were to be the company, and whether she
was included in the invitation, was occupying her busy fancy, when she
saw her sister going out of the house with the three-cornered note in
her hand, and cross the street to Mr. McNeal's stocking shop, which
was opposite. Almost immediately afterwards Mr. McNeal's shopman came
out of the shop, and, running down the street, was presently out of
sight, but soon returned with Mr. McNeal himself. She saw Louisa
reading the note to Mr. McNeal, and in a few minutes afterwards return
home. Here was a matter of wonder and conjecture. Sophy forgot all her
good resolutions, and absolutely wearied herself with her useless
curiosity.

At l