Part 4 (1/2)
The scene which then presented itself transfixed them with astonishment.
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 antic.i.p.ation 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 a.s.sured 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 companions to join in a plot which I knew you would disapprove.”
”Go now to your beds,” said Mrs. Middleton, ”and I will send a servant to clear away the disorder of this room. Rosalie, I see, has already slipped off to hers.”
Next morning, before school commenced, Mrs. Middleton addressed the young ladies mildly but impressively, on the proceedings of the day before. She dwelt on the general impropriety of all secret contrivances; on the injury done to the integrity of the ignorant servant-girl, by bribing her to deceive her employer; on the danger of making themselves sick by eating such a variety of sweet things; and on the folly of expending in those dainties, money which might be much better employed.
”That,” said Henrietta, ”was one of Isabella Caldwell's objections to joining our feasting party. I am now convinced that she had in view some more sensible manner of disposing of her money. I regret that she was prevailed on to contribute her dollar, as she must have had an excellent reason for her unwillingness; and she seemed really unhappy, and went to bed without touching any of our good things.”
”I can guess how it was,” said Miss Loxley. ”One very cold morning last week, I met Diana, Miss Caldwell's washerwoman, going up stairs with the clean clothes, and having nothing on her shoulders but an old cotton shawl. I asked her if she had no cloak, and she replied that she had not; but added, that Miss Isabella had been so kind as to promise her one, which was to be ready for her when she came again. I suspect that Miss Caldwell has been saving her money for the laudable purpose of furnis.h.i.+ng this poor woman with a cloak.”
”Oh! no doubt she has,” exclaimed Henrietta. ”Why, dear Isabella, did you not say so? and bad as I am, I would not have persisted in persuading you out of your dollar.”
”The woman, however, did not get her cloak,” resumed Miss Loxley, ”for I again saw her without one, yesterday, though the weather had increased in severity.”
”It is true,” said Isabella. ”The cloak was to have cost four dollars, and after subscribing one dollar to the feast, I could not buy it; as I had not then sufficient money.”
_Mrs. Middleton._ Miss Harwood, had you often these feasts at Madame Disette's.
_Henrietta._ Oh! very often, and as the teacher, Miss Benson, was always one of the party, we managed so well, that Madame Disette never discovered us. Or if she had any suspicion, she said nothing about it; for after all, she cared very little what we did out of school-hours provided that our proceedings _cost her nothing_.
_Mrs. Middleton._ You must not speak so disrespectfully of your former governess. But I will explain to you that _I_ care very much what you do, even in your hours of recreation. It is when the business of the school is over, and they are no longer in the presence of their instructors, that girls are in the greatest danger of forming bad habits, and imitating bad examples. All deceit, all tricks, are highly unjustifiable. A little feast may seem in itself of small moment; but if you persist in plotting little feasts, you will eventually be led on to plot things of more importance, and which may lead to the worst consequences. Then, as I always allow you as large a portion of sweet things as comports with your health, it is the more reprehensible in you to seek to procure them for yourselves, without my knowledge. Tell me now, do any of you feel the better for last night's frolic?
_Miss Thomson._ O, no, no! Miss Watkins and Miss Roberts were sick all night; and, indeed, none of us feel very well this morning.
_Mrs. Middleton._ I observed that you all had very little appet.i.te for your breakfast.
_Miss Brownlow._ And then _I_ had my new frock spoiled when I fell down in the lamp-oil.
_Miss Wilc.o.x._ And I got some lamp-oil into my mouth. I tasted it all night. Even my nose was rubbed in it, as I lay struggling on the floor.
_Miss Snodgra.s.s._ And _I_ fell with my knees on half a dozen pieces of orange, and stained my black silk frock, so that it is no longer fit to wear.
_Miss Marley._ And _I_ was thrown down with the back of my head on a bunch of grapes, mas.h.i.+ng them to a jelly.
_Miss Scott._ But _my_ hair was so very sticky, with falling into the lemon syrup, that I was obliged, this morning, to wash it all over with warm soap-suds.
_Miss Roberts._ And _I_ put my foot into the bottom of the broken pitcher, and cut my heel so that it bled through the stocking.
_Miss Watkins._ Still, nothing of this would have happened if Rosalie Sunbridge had stayed in her bed. It was her hiding in the closet and frightening us, that caused all the mischief.