How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[…] not for any good they could do her, but for the harm they could, with her unconscious aid, do to each other. (Preface.5)
Whoa, James. Way to start this novel out with a bleak bang. Maisie's parents do not subscribe to the doctor's "first, do no harm" rule of thumb. They mean to use Maisie to do as much damage to each other as possible.
Quote #2
The child was provided for, thanks to a crafty godmother, a defunct aunt of Beale's, who had left her something in such a manner that the parents could appropriate only the income. (Preface.6)
Again, this is James at his most cynical. Maisie's parents use the monetary inheritance left to Maisie—but at least they can't touch all of her inheritance. This aunt was "crafty" enough to know how scummy her nephew is, apparently.
Quote #3
Her first term was with her father, who spared her only in not letting her have the wild letters addressed to her by her mother: he confined himself to holding them up at her and shaking them, while he showed his teeth, and then amusing her by the way he chucked them, across the room, bang into the fire. (I.2)
Nice, Dad, nice. This dude doesn't let his daughter have the letters her mother has written to her. He chucks them into the fire instead. To be fair, these letters were probably pretty nasty.