s now advanced in
years, was catched in a conversation with one of my lord's men, which
was not to her credit; for, it coming to his ears, she was turned out of
the house by my lord's orders, and was never suffered to come into it
again during his lifetime, and I did not dare to speak a word in her
favour for fear he should retort upon me, "Like mistress, like maid."

I could hear nothing of Amy for the first three months after she had
left me, till one day, as I was looking out of a dining-room window, I
saw her pass by, but I did not dare ask her to come in, for fear my lord
should hear of her being there, which would have been adding fuel to the
fire; however, she, looking up at the house, saw me. I made a motion to
her to stay a little about the door, and in the meantime I wrote a note,
and dropped it out of the window, in which I told her how I had lived in
her absence, and desired her to write me a letter, and carry it the next
day to my sempstress's house, who would take care to deliver it to me
herself.

I told Isabel that she should let me know when the milliner came again,
for I had some complaints to her about getting up my best suit of
Brussels lace nightclothes. On the Saturday following, just after I had
dined, Isabel came into my apartment. "My lady," says she, "the milliner
is in the parlour; will you be pleased to have her sent upstairs, or
will your ladyship be pleased to go down to her?" "Why, send her up,
Isabel," said I, "she is as able to come to me as I am to go to her; I
will see her here."

When the milliner came into my chamber, I sent Isabel to my
dressing-room to fetch a small parcel of fine linen which lay there, and
in the interim she gave me Amy's letter, which I put into my pocket,
and, having pretended to be angry about my linen, I gave her the small
bundle Isabel brought, and bid her be sure to do them better for the
future.

She promised me she would, and went about her business; and when she was
gone, I opened Amy's letter, and having read it, found it was to the
following purpose, viz., that she had opened a coffee-house, and
furnished the upper part of it to let out in lodgings; that she kept two
maids and a man, but that the trade of it did not answer as she had
reason to expect; she was willing to leave it off, and retire into the
country to settle for the rest of her life, but was continually harassed
by such disturbance in her conscience as made her unfit to resolve upon
an