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. Arden tells me that
  it must end in his being hanged
  I am exceedingly grieved
  but fear this will be the end

When Sophy had read these broken sentences she fancied that she fully comprehended the purport of the whole note, and she now saw the reason of her sister’s hastening to Mr. McNeal’s immediately on the receipt of the note, and of the hurry in which he had been summoned back to his shop.  It appeared very clear to her that he had defrauded Mrs. Arden of a considerable sum of money, and that he was no longer that honest tradesman he had been supposed.  The weight of this important discovery quite overburdened her, and, forgetful of her past punishment, and regardless of future consequences, she imparted the surprising secret to Sally.  Sally was not one who could keep such a piece of news to herself; it was therefore soon circulated through half the town that Mr. McNeal had defrauded Mrs. Arden, and that Mr. Arden declared he would have him hanged for it.  Several persons in consequence avoided Mr. McNeal’s shop, who saw his customers forsaking him without being able to know why they did so.  Thus the conduct of this inconsiderate girl took away the good name of an honest tradesman, on no better foundation than her own idle conjectures, drawn from the torn fragments of a letter.