continent. I need hardly add that
I refer to the continent of Europe.

Having long cherished a secret longing to visit foreign parts, I the
more gladly entertained the suggestion when our principal, Miss
Waddleton, broached it to me. As outlined by Miss Waddleton, the
prospect at first blush seemed an inviting one--one might even venture
so far as to call it an alluring one. All my actual travelling expenses
were to be paid; the itinerary would be pursued in accordance with a
plan previously laid out, and finally, I was to have for my aide, for my
chief of staff as it were, Miss Charlotte Primleigh, a member of our
faculty of long standing and a lady in whom firmness of character is
agreeably united with indubitable qualities of the mind, particularly in
the fields of algebra, geometry and trigonometry. Miss Primleigh is our
mathematics teacher.

Though gratified and flattered by the trust imposed in me, and welcoming
the opportunity for helpful service in a new and as yet untried realm,
I, nevertheless, strove to comply with such conventionalities as are
ordained by organised society. Indeed, I trust that a fitting and proper
sense of propriety is never entirely banished from my mind at any time
whatsoever.

To Miss Waddleton I said:

"But, my dear lady, I pray you, have thought for these cardinal
points--I myself am unmarried; Miss Primleigh is herself unmarried; the
young lady students contemplating embarkation on this expedition are
each and every one of them unmarried also. In view of these facts--which
are incontrovertible and not to be gainsaid--do you deem it entirely
proper that I, a member of the opposite sex, should be suffered to
accompany them throughout the course of their sojourn on alien shores,
far, far from home and the restraining influences of the home circle?"

"I shouldn't worry myself about that part of it if I were you, Doctor
Fibble," replied Miss Waddleton in the direct and forcible manner so
typical of her. "There isn't a father alive who would hesitate about
letting his daughter travel in your company if he had ever met you--or
even if he had ever seen you."

I cite this rejoinder as added proof of the confidence with which I am
regarded by one well qualified through daily association and frequent
observation to know the true merits of my character and disposition.

Touched no little by such an expression of sentiment from the lips of
Miss Waddleton, I promptly accepted the obligation