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I hoistedoff my knees when I heard a woman’s voice behind me "Excuse me," she said to Mrs Lynch Startled, she turned around

The woht brown hair and a linen skirt She was about the age of"This is one of my students I’ll deal with her"

I had never seen her in ave her a suspicious look So did I

"I onlyrunted in reply and went back to her office, her yardstick tapping as she walked When she was gone, the woman turned to me "Come"

The crowd in the foyer of Horace Hall parted, and I heldeye contact with anyone, to hide lanced around us "Go back to the dore"

"What about the headmistress?"

"Do you really want to see her?"

I shook ht"

I didn’t knoho she was or why she was helping me "Why--" I started to say, but she interrupted ain"

With a nod, I ran back to the dorh all of my mother’s clothes until I finally found awith a pair of stockings Then I tucked in an, and stood in front of the nize ht by me Yet for some reason the woman who had just saved me from the headmistress’s office had looked at , I ran a hand through my hair and pinned it back with my mother’s barrette

By the end of the day I had ether alked over to our last class, Crude Sciences It was in the Observatory, a tall spindle of a building in the center of campus On the way, I told hi class before Latin, and about Minnie and Mrs Lynch and the mystery woman who had intervened

"Yeah," Nathaniel said His poorly knotted tie was too long, and swung against his chest as he struggled to hold his books and keep up withpeople squir too ered the three or four lone whiskers that had sprouted from his chin "I don’t even own a razor!" His voice cracked, and he blushed "And next tis and dropping stuff, which doesn’t really help the fact that everyone here thinks she’s crazy"