beatrice ended up at st mary's which she supposed was nicer than a jail cell but not much still better than the streets in winter she once her wits were about her and shed remained a farce dotility long enough to be allowed letter privilege shed wait and wrote to miss mayple the only teacher at miss nightingales school for younf ladies to cacre more for a girl's understanding of advanced mathematics than how well she kept her legs crossed while balancing a book on her head the first most important matter of business was whether or not beatrice could take her exams later if she could find the money and still graduate secondly beatrice had an uncle his name was leonard starh he lived with his wife and daughter on long island somewhere but that was far as her childhood memory strecthed beatrice's birth father died in the war before she turned eight and her stepfather had wanted absolutely nothing to do with his wife's former in laws a radical unseemly bunch as he put it beatrice didnt let herself hope too much especially without a penny to her name but two weeks ago the head matron had received letter from oe leaonard stahr requesting care of his niece as soon as possible mr stahr the matron replied while we at society always appreciate the compassion of extended fsmily memebers we feel it wise to inform you that removing miss clark from the home at this point in time may no be in her best interest as i undertsand you have not seen her in nearly a decade and it pains me to inform you that she is going to ruin as quickly as a girl can we have reasonable cause to believe she was a instigator of a riot among a group of young girls last month she threw a clock out a window yes well beatrice would pay for the clock that was fair shed been very angry and the doctor had refused to listen to her a lot of firls at st mary's had worked the bars brothels and aleyways of lower manhattan before being rescued by the society they carried any number of sickness with them which meant frequent visits from a physician the learned gentleman had been administering douche and mercury treatments for veneral diseases hypodermic deses twice a week until ywenty doses were swimming like collected poison inside already sick girls one in particular looked halfway to her grave clock throwing was to be xpected with that sort of idiocy thatwas what beatrice thought but even so she did try she did say clesrly suffering from bichloride mercury posoning she needs hospital though beatrice might not have listened to herself either since she had also prefaced it with you you incompetent fool leonard stahr replied i first met my late wife marching head of a s womens suffragte parade i must say with respect to your position that i have a deep fondness for rioting women and you could not have made my niece more appealing to me if she came adorned with cash prize we will arrive to pick her up friday morning on fifth of may beatrice knew this because the matron had given the letter back along with the rest of her belongings and refused to let beatrice use any of society;s supplies as she was no longer its responsibility the meant no soap for three days and sleeping without sheets but the other girls shared beatrice wouldny have minded if they hadnt her aunt and beatrice thought abot her is the cold reasoning of a survivor thank goodness that it wasnt her uncle whod gone taht she was still blood related to the remaining members of the stahr family she winced at her own callousness her memories of aunt anna were warm and filled with high belllike laughter a motor engine growled near the base of the hill growing louder until a bluelambda covered in dust and smeling of petrol crawled up to the gate beatrice went for her feet the driver was alone and a girl she stood up in the roofless car and waved this had to be beatrice's cousin hero though she was nearly a woman now, stepping out of the car in pair of heels and a skirt barely past her kneews she propped a pair of darkened driving glasses on her foehead and lit a cigarette beatrice? my word your tall as a beanstalk i wont reach your shoulder even in this shoes of course im not that tall anyway