The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth (Book of Dust, Volume 2) by Philip Pullman Page B

that you would be prepared.”
    “I suppose I should have asked.”
    “You were young. Children take things for granted. Not your fault at all, and it would be very unjust to expose you to consequences you could never have foreseen. This is what I propose. Jordan College will fund the remainder of your education at St. Sophia’s. As far as your accommodation outside term is concerned, you may, of course, continue to live here in Jordan, which is, after all, your only home, until you graduate. I understand you have the use of a second room as well as a bedroom?”
    “Yes,” she said, finding her voice quieter than she had expected.
    “Well, this presents us with a little problem. You see, the rooms on that staircase are really needed for undergraduates, for our young men. That is what they were built for, were always intended for. The rooms you occupy could accommodate two first-year undergraduates who currently have to live outside college, which is not ideal. We could at a pinch go back to asking you to use one room only, which would free the second room for one man, but there are matters of propriety, of modesty, one might say, which make it unsuitable….”
    “There are undergraduates living on the same staircase,” Lyra said. “There always have been. It’s never been unsuitable before.”
    “But not on the same landing. It would not work, Lyra.”
    “And I’m only here in the vacation,” she said, beginning to sound desperate. “During term I live at St. Sophia’s.”
    “Of course. But the presence of your belongings in that room would make it impossible for a young man to make the place properly his own. Lyra, this is what the college can offer. There is a room—a small one, I admit—above the kitchen, currently used as a storeroom. The Bursar will arrange for that room to be furnished and made available to you for the duration of your studies. You may live here as you have done all your life until you graduate. Rent, meals during the vacation, we shall cover all that. But you must understand, this is how things will be in the future.”
    “I see,” she said.
    “May I ask—do you have any other family?”
    “None.”
    “Your mother—”
    “She vanished at the same time as my father.”
    “And there are no relations on her side?”
    “I never heard of any. Except—I think she might have had a brother. Someone told me that once. But I don’t know anything about him, and he’s never been in touch with me.”
    “Ah. I’m sorry.”
    Lyra tried to pick up a spoonful of her dessert, but her hand was shaking. She put the spoon down.
    “Would you care for some coffee?” he said.
    “No, thank you. I think perhaps I’d better go. Thank you for dinner.”
    He stood up, formal, elegant, sympathetic, in his beautiful gray suit and silver hair. His dæmon came to stand beside him; Lyra gathered Pan up in her arms as she stood up too.
    “Would you like me to move out at once?” she said.
    “By the end of the vacation, if you could manage that.”
    “Yes. All right.”
    “And, Lyra, one more thing. You’ve been used to dining in Hall, to accepting the hospitality of the Scholars, to coming and going freely as if you were a Scholar yourself. It’s been put to me by several voices, and I’m bound to say I agree, that that behavior is no longer appropriate. You will be living among servants, and living, so to speak, as a servant. It would not be right anymore for you to live on terms of social equality with the academic body.”
    “Of course not,” she said. Surely she was dreaming this.
    “I’m glad you understand. You will have things to think about. If it would help at all to talk to me, to ask any questions, please don’t hesitate to do so.”
    “No, I won’t. Thank you, Dr. Hammond. I’m in no doubt now about where I belong and how soon I shall have to leave. I’m only sorry to have troubled the college for so long. If Dr. Carne had been able to explain things as clearly as you