"Well," says Matilda, "I'm not sure if I can teach you magic from my world... I don't know very much about it yet."
"I don't think getting anyone else would help," she says. "I'm not sure yet how people start being able to do magic, but I'm the first one I know about."
"Well," says Matilda, "I could ask Miss Honey if I can come to your world to take witchcraft lessons, and if she says yes and you find me witchcraft lessons then when I figure out how people start having magic I'll tell you."
"She's my adoptive mother since last year, and she's in charge of the school I go to."
"Not immediately, she wasn't in the room or anything, but she will if she looks for me and can't find me at all. Can you come home with me to talk to her?"
"We can just send this along after we send you back," says Terali. "You don't have to wait. How long should we give Miss Honey to write a reply on the back of the letter?"
"Well, an hour is sixty minutes and a minute is sixty seconds, but I don't have a clock with me..."
Matilda peers at the numbers. "It looks like a split is about the same thing as a second."