schoolmarm

The schoolmarm came to an abrupt stop in her arithmetic quizzing, her face set into a pruny scowl that looked to be permanent.

Bernstein, am I a stuffed shirt? Am I a horse-faced hypocrite? Am I a New England school marm?

His brother Thomas, impaled upon the "schoolmarm tree," had opened his mouth to cry but snow and wind hurled back the words into his throat so that nothing emerges but white froth.