onishment.
The floor was strewed with the remains of the feast. The oil from the
shattered lamps was running among the cakes and pies, which were also
drenched with water from a broken pitcher; near which the bottle of
lemon-syrup was lying in fragments. The table was thrown down on its
side. Some of the young ladies were still prostrate on the floor, and
all were screaming. Rosalie (frightened at the uproar she had caused)
was on her hands and knees, looking out from the upper shelf of the
closet, and crying "O, take me down, take me down! somebody bring a
chair and take me down."

Isabella Caldwell, hearing the noise, had thrown on her flannel gown,
and ran also to see what was the matter. As soon as the surprise of Mrs.
Middleton would allow her to speak, she inquired the cause of all this
disturbance; but she could get no other answer than that there was some
horrible thing in the closet. "There is indeed something in the closet,"
said Mrs. Middleton, perceiving Rosalie. "Miss Sunbridge, how came you
up there, and in that dress? and what is the meaning of all this?"

The young ladies, having recovered from their terror when they found it
to be groundless, and Miss Loxley having taken down Rosalie, Henrietta
made a candid confession of the whole business. Acknowledging herself to
be the proposer and leader of the plot, she expressed her readiness to
submit to any punishment Mrs. Middleton might think proper to inflict on
her, but hoped that her governess would have the goodness to pardon all
the other young ladies; none of whom would have thought of a secret
feast, if she had not suggested it to them. "Above all," continued
Henrietta, "I must exculpate Isabella Caldwell, who declined going to
table with us or partaking of any thing, but retired to her bed; as may
be known by her being now in her night-clothes."

Mrs. Middleton was touched with the generosity of Henrietta Harwood, in
taking all the blame on herself to exonerate her companions; and as her
kind heart would not allow her to send any of her pupils to bed in the
anticipation of being punished the next day, she said, "Miss Harwood, I
will for this time permit your misdemeanour to go unpunished, but I
require a promise from you that it shall never be repeated. Make that
promise sincerely, and I feel assured that you will keep it."

"O, yes, indeed, dear madam!" sobbed Henrietta, "you are too kind; and I
cannot forgive myself for having persuaded my compan