What Miss Hopley said to us we did not know but we saw in her eyes a warm welcome and when she took off her glasses and straightened her up she smiled wholeheartedly, like Mrs. Dodson. We were, of course, saying nothing, only catching the friendliness of her voice and the sparkle of her eyes while she said words we didn't understand. She signaled us to the table. Almost tiptoeing across the office i maneuvered myself to keep my mother between me and the gringo lady
Slayt: 2
The principal half turned in the swivel chair to look at us over the pinch glasses crossed on the ridge of her nose. To do this she had to duck her head slightly as if she were about to through a low doorway.
Slayt: 3
In a matter of seconds I had to decide whether she was a possible friend or a menace. We sat down. Then Miss Hopley did a formidable thing. She stood up. Had she been standing when she entered she would have seemed tall. But rising from her chair she soared. And what she carried with her was a buxom superstructure, firm arms, a super straight sharp nose, full cheeks slightly molded by a curve line along the nostrils, thin lips that moved like steel spring and a high forehead topped with a bun.