When Miss Pupford and her assistant first foregathered, is not known to
men, or pupils. But, it was long ago. A belief would have established
itself among pupils that the two once went to school together, were it
not for the difficulty and audacity of imagining Miss Pupford born
without mittens, and without a front, and without a bit of gold wire
among her front teeth, and without little dabs of powder on her neat
little face and nose. Indeed, whenever Miss Pupford gives a little
lecture on the mythology of the misguided heathens (always carefully
excluding Cupid from recognition), and tells how Minerva sprang,
perfectly equipped, from the brain of Jupiter, she is half supposed to
hint, "So I myself came into the world, completely up in Pinnock,
Mangnall, Tables, and the use of the Globes."

Howbeit, Miss Pupford and Miss Pupford's assistant are old old friends.
And it is thought by pupils that, after pupils are gone to bed, they even
call one another by their christian names in the quiet little parlour.
For, once upon a time on a thunderous afternoon, when Miss Pupford
fainted away without notice, Miss Pupford's assistant (never heard,
before or since, to address her otherwise than as Miss Pupford) ran to
her, crying out, "My dearest Euphemia!" And Euphemia is Miss Pupford's
christian name on the sampler (date picked out) hanging up in the College-
hall, where the two peacocks, terrified to death by some German text that
is waddling down-hill after them out of a cottage, are scuttling away to
hide their profiles in two immense bean-stalks growing out of
flower-pots.

Also, there is a notion latent among pupils, that Miss Pupford was once
in love, and that the beloved object still moves upon this ball. Also,
that he is a public character, and a personage of vast consequence. Also,