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the continual entrance and exit of strangers; nor exposed to curious enquirers, or hardy starers; and no longer fatigued by the perpetual revision of goods. She worked in perfect quietness, undisturbed and uninterrupted; her mistress was civil, and gave her encouragement; her fellow-semptresses were unobservant, and left her to her own reflexions.
It is not, however, in courts alone that favour is perilous; in all circles, and all classes, from the most eminent to the most obscure, the "Favourite has no friend[1]!" The praises and the comparisons, by which Mrs. Hart hoped to stimulate her little community to emulation, excited only jealousy, envy, and ill will; and a week had not elapsed, in this new and short tranquillity, before Juliet found that her superiour diligence was regarded, by her needle-sisterhood, as a mean artifice "to set herself off to advantage at their cost." Sneers and
