ength the term of her imprisonment was over, and Sophy was
restored to the society of her family. At first she kept a tolerable
guard over herself. Once she saw her father and sister whispering, and
did not, though she longed much to do it, hold her breath that she
might hear what they were saying. Another time she passed Charles's
door when it was ajar and the little study open, and she had so much
self-command that she passed by without peeping in, and she began to
think she was cured of her faults. But in reality this was far from
being the case, and whenever she recollected Mrs. Arden's mysterious
note she felt her inquisitive propensities as strong as ever. Her eyes
and ears were always on the alert, in hopes of obtaining some clue to
the knowledge she coveted, and if Mrs, Arden's or Mr. McNeal's names
were mentioned she listened with trembling anxiety in the hope of
hearing some allusion to the note.

At last, when she had almost given up the matter in despair, an
unlooked-for chance put her in possession of a fragment of this very
note to which she attached so much importance.

One day Louisa wanted to wind a skein of silk, and in looking for a
piece of paper to wind it upon she opened her writing-box, and took
out Mrs. Arden's note. Sophy knew it again in an instant from its
three-cornered shape. She saw her sister tear the note in two, throw
one-half under the grate, and fold the other part up to wind her silk
upon. Sophy kept her eye upon the paper that lay under the grate in
the greatest anxiety, lest a coal should drop upon it and destroy it,
when it seemed almost within her grasp. Louisa was called out of the
room, and Sophy, overpowered by the greatness of the temptation,
forgot all the good resolutions she had so lately made, and at the
risk of setting fire to her sleeve, snatched the paper from among the
ashes, and concealed it in her pocket. She then flew to her own room
to examine it at her ease. The note had been torn the lengthway of the
paper, and that part of it of which Sophy had possessed herself
contained the first half of each line of the note. Bolting her door
for fear of interruption, she read, with trembling impatience, as
follows:

Will you
be kind enough to go to
Mr. McNeal, and tell him
he has made a great mistake
the last stockings he sent;
charging them as silk) he has cheated
of several pounds.--I am sorry to say
that he has behaved very ill
And Mr. Arde