Height presents herself as a kind of secular nun.

The three women seemed to hover about me like secular nuns, full of murmurs and reassurances.

Probably representing a majority of the teachers in the elementary division of the New York City public-school system of the 1930's, they were something like (and may even have seen themselves as) secular nuns.

He rose and said good-bye, wondering as he spoke how he could make his entrance here again and how he could break it to these women, who were like hardy secular nuns, that he came for love.