Sipping from her morning cup of coffee, Sibruina tells Nelly that she is a "kept mistress" . She tells her that the top student at the school is a mistress, and that the whole school has seen that she has taken a fancy car to school, which makes her look like a "fuddy-duddy girl" , as she calls herself . Nelly, however, is not a "mistress" by any stretch of the imagination. She has done nothing wrong, she says, and she has a clear conscience.