A Conversation About Rain

Summary

• Nora Seed is in the library of Hazeldene School conversating with the librarian Mrs. Elm, featuring their chess game as a backdrop.
• Mrs. Elm is encouraging Nora about her future, assuring her that she can do or be anything, despite her worries about upcoming exams.
• The author mentions Nora's strained relationship with her mother, who always treated her as if she was a mistake to be corrected.
• Nora and Mrs. Elm discuss the weather, revealing Nora’s wish to live somewhere less cold and wet.
• Nora shares knowledge about different elements of the natural world, displaying her intelligence.
• Nora expresses her feeling of insecurity in school, especially after her brother had left, and sees the library as her little refuge.
• She laments her father's disappointment over her quitting swimming, leading Mrs. Elm to remind her there's more to life than swimming, and she could be anything, like a glaciologist for example.
• Just as Mrs. Elm is making her point, she's interrupted by a phone call. Mrs. Elm answers and becomes visibly distraught, uttering words implying bad news and ending the chapter on a cliffhanger.