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Professor Braithwope stared and then bent down, retrieved the tube, and stood, all without relaxing his aro of the crossbow, so he pulled the cork stopper out of the tube with his teeth The stopper caught and stuck on one of them, but he didn’t notice Inside the tube was a tiny roll of paper with a printed er froed

"Well," demanded Lady Linette, "what does it say?"

Professor Braithwope began to read, but his words were garbled by the cork "Ith sayth thath--"

"Professor, you have so," hissed Lady Linette, clearly embarrassed for the man

"Whoth? Whoth?"

Professor Lefoux reached forward and tugged off the offending cork

Professor Braithwope read out, "It says that they want the prototype They are giving us three weeks to produce it, after which they will return with reinforcements"

"Absurd! What kind of reinforcements could flywaymen possibly have?" Professor Lefoux blustered

Lady Linette was not so dish…"

"You think the Picklemen are behind this, whot?" Professor Braithwope swirled the little note between his long white fingers

"Who else?" said Professor Lefoux, and then she added, "On the positive end of things, if they are threatening us, it ot it Wherever Monique hid it, she hid it from everyone"

"Trained her too well, whot?" Professor Braithwope let out a self-deprecating chuckle

"Little pitchers have big ears," said Lady Linette, nodding to where Sophronia still skulked behind aas required of her Nothing, apparently, as the adults went back to ignoring her She remained wildly curious about the prototype, but unfortunately, nothing else about it was e at the flywayhy nearest the this as a dismissal, the whole parade of tiny airships turned and drifted lazily away

"Three weeks," ested course of action?"

"Leave the real one be for now; the girl’s clearly hidden it well enough, whot?"

"We ested Professor Lefoux

"That is a good idea Do you think you could?" Lady Linette turned to her compatriot

"I don’t see why not I have old blueprints of a previous irls on to it, too, do theether" Professor Braithwope nodded, sht-lipped se and disarmed the dart from his little crossbow The defensive mechanicals all around them instantly lowered their cannons and closed the hatches in their chests

Professor Braithwope returned to the brass box, opened it, and switched the lever inside With a whir of gears, the mechanicals all trundled away He then returned to Professor Lefoux’s side and offered her his arm "What initial netized steel ht be the et the furnace heated immediately"

"Steel, whot? Capital idea Capital"

The twoover her dio in beize, Miss Teenerally this much--well, much If you’d like to follow me, I’ll see you settled" Lady Linette dismissed the whole occurrence with a little toss of her head

Sophronia hesitated, and then--because everyone seeotten hi e pinafore pocket Then she trailed after her new teacher

Music teacher, she thought, looking at the full skirts of Lady Linette’s lavender dress And I’m Queen of the Vampires

Of course, the next day, when it finally came ti at a pianoforte, playing scales

THE REAL MEANING OF FINISHING

Miss Temminnick, you share this parlor with the other debuts Now, ladies," Lady Linette said, looking at the four girls before her, "this is Miss Temminnick I’m certain you will make her welcome She is now ready to learn more about our educational institution" With that, Lady Linette whirled away to devote her ti matters

Sophronia stood aardly in the center of the rooer than she, and all of them were better dressed For the first tie of concern about the , but these young ladies were elegant, with opinions more important than those of mere sisters She reached inside her pinafore pocket and produced the little sausage dog

"Is that all you brought with you? Avoice with clipped elocution, as if each ere being preirl behind the voice was tiny, with a htly curled black hair and a heart-shaped face set in a morose expression She was, unfortunately, beautiful Sophronia’s only consolation was that the girl had a decidedly low nose Sitting next to her was a wholesome redhead with freckles quite beyond Sophronia’s own--solanced with shy interest at the mechanimal and then focused her attention on her own shoes Next to her sat Diular, mannish creature, her posture slouched and her dress ill-fitting She was occupied in chewing on a stick and sneering at them all froet that?" Di up to exclai, presuarish jewelry, however, and found a gown of sea green that strained to balloon over hera recent excursion to a squeak deck I thought I’d call him Bu on the top of his head with two fingers, not convinced Bu his little leather ears Dimity started back