「I hope youll sit o me at dinner,」 said Mrs. Coulter, making room for Lyra on the sofa. 「Im not used to the grandeur of a Masters lodging. Youll have to show me whiife and fork to use.」
「Are you a female Scholar?」 said Lyra. She regarded female Scholars with a proper Jordan disdain: there were such people, but, poor things, they could never be taken more seriously than animals dressed up and ag a play. Mrs.
Coulter, oher hand, was not like any female Scholar Lyra had seen, aainly not like the two serious elderly ladies who were the other female guests. Lyra had asked the question expeg the answer No, in fact, for Mrs.
Coulter had su air of glamour that Lyra was entranced. She could hardly take her eyes off her.
「Not really,」 Mrs. Coulter said. 「Im a member of Dame Hannahs college, but most of my work takes place outside Oxford....Tell me about yourself, Lyra. Have you always lived at Jordan College?」
Within five minutes Lyra had told her everything about her half-wild life: her favorite routes over the rooftops, the battle of the claybeds, the time she and Roger had caught and roasted a rook, her iion to capture a narrowboat from the gyptians and sail it to Abingdon, and so on. She even (looking around and l her voice) told her about the trick she and Roger had played on the skulls in the crypt.
「And these ghosts came, right, they came to my bedroom without their heads! They couldnt talk except for making sort of gurgling noises, but I knew what they wanted all right. So I went dow day and put their s back. Theyd probably have killed me else.」
「Youre not afraid of dahen?」 said Mrs. Coulter admiringly. They were at dinner by this time, and as Lyra had hoped, sittio each other. Lyra ignored pletely the Librarian oher side and spent the whole meal talking to Mrs. Coulter.
When the ladies withdrew for coffee, Dame Hannah said, 「Tell me, Lyra—are they going to send you to school?」
Lyra looked blank. 「I dun—I dont know,」 she said. 「Probably not,」 she added for safety. 「I wouldnt want to put them to any trouble,」 she went on piously. 「Or expes probably better if I just go on living at Jordan aing educated by the Scholars here when theyve got a bit of spare time. Being as theyre here already, theyre probably free.」
「And does your uncle Lord Asriel have any plans for you?」 said the other lady, who was a Scholar at the other womens college.
「Yes,」 said Lyra. 「I expect so. Not school, though. Hes going to take me to the North ime he goes.」
「I remember him telling me,」 said Mrs. Coulter.
Lyra blihe two female Scholars sat up very slightly, though their demoher well behaved or torpid, did no more than flick their eyes at each other.
「I met him at the Royal Arctistitute,」 Mrs. Coulter went on. 「As a matter of fact, its partly because of that meeting that Im here today.」
「Are you an explorer too?」 said Lyra.
「In a kind of way. Ive been to the North several times. Last year I spent three months in Greenland making observations of the Aurora.」
That was it; nothing and no one else existed now for Lyra. She gazed at Mrs.
Coulter with awe, and listened rapt and silent to her tales of igloo building, of seal hunting, of iating with the Lapland witches. The two female Scholars had nothing so exg to tell, and sat in sileil the men came in.
Later, when the guests were preparing to leave, the Master said, 「Stay behind, Lyra. Id like to talk to y