How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
She puzzled out with imperfect signs, but with a prodigious spirit, that she had been a centre of hatred and a messenger of insult, and that everything was bad because she had been employed to make it so. (II.2)
Oof. This quote hurts, too. Maisie cannot believe that her parents would abandon her, so she comes to the conclusion that it is her fault that everything is so dysfunctional.
Quote #5
It was while this absence lasted that our young lady finally discovered what had happened in the house to be that her mother was no longer in love. (XI.4)
Sly Jamesian double-meaning alert. Maisie's mom is not only no longer in love with Sir Claude; Maisie's mom is no longer in love with Maisie.
Quote #6
"[…] he therefore recognised the hour that in troubled glimpses she had long foreseen, the hour when—the phrase for it came back to her from Mrs. Beale—with two fathers, two mothers and two homes, six protections in all, she shouldn't know "wherever" to go. (XII.1)
This sentence underscores the idea that Maisie's isolation isn't absolute. Which is just a fancy way of saying that she's not really alone, just blocked from accessing the "protections" that are theoretically available to her. Why? Well, because with the exception of Mrs. Wix, the adults in Maisie's world don't offer the protection they're supposed to.