Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 15, July 9, 1870

A bright yet unsettling world unfolds within the walls of Macassar Female College, where Flora, an orphan raised among the cloistered corridors of an alms‑house, navigates a life stitched together by strange benefactors and whispered rumors. Her guardians—an eclectic mix of melancholy widowers and eccentric benefactors— have arranged a marriage that seems more a bargain than a romance, while the school’s teachers and classmates indulge in gossip that feels both theatrical and foreboding.

When a rumor of a violent duel between two local gentlemen spreads, the girls are drawn into a frenzy of speculation, half‑expecting a dramatic showdown. The arrival of a mysterious visitor, Mr. Dibble, whose unremarkable appearance masks an unsettling presence, only deepens the sense that something hidden lurks beneath the school’s genteel façade. As Flora’s own anxieties swell, the story teeters between dark comedy and a puzzling mystery, inviting listeners to untangle the tangled threads of rumor, duty, and the eerie undercurrents of a seemingly genteel institution.