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E-text prepared by Eve Sobol, South Bend, Indiana, USA
and revised by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.

HTML version prepared by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.

WHAT MAISIE KNEW

by

Henry James

CONTENTS

The litigation seemed interminable and had in fact beencomplicated; but by the decision on the appeal the judgement ofthe divorce-court was confirmed as to the assignment of the child.The father, who, though bespattered from head to foot, had madegood his case, was, in pursuance of this triumph, appointed tokeep her: it was not so much that the mother's character had beenmore absolutely damaged as that the brilliancy of a lady'scomplexion (and this lady's, in court, was immensely remarked)might be more regarded as showing the spots. Attached, however, tothe second pronouncement was a condition that detracted, for BealeFarange, from its sweetness—an order that he should refund to hislate wife the twenty-six hundred pounds put down by her, as it wascalled, some three years before, in the interest of the child'smaintenance and precisely on a proved understanding that he wouldtake no proceedings: a sum of which he had had the administrationand of which he could render not the least account. The obligationthus attributed to her adversary was no small balm to Ida'sresentment; it drew a part of the sting from her defeat andcompelled Mr. Farange perceptibly to lower his crest. He wasunable to produce the money or to raise it in any way; so thatafter a squabble scarcely less public and scarcely more decentthan the original shock of battle his only issue from hispredicament was a compromise proposed by his legal advisers andfinally accepted by hers.

His debt was by this arrangement remitted to him and the littlegirl disposed of in a manner worthy of the judgement-seat ofSolomon. She was divided in two and the portions tossedimpartially to the disputants. They would take her, in rotation,for six months at a time; she would spend half the year with each.This was odd justice in the eyes of those who still blinked in thefierce light projected from the tribunal—a light in which neitherparent figured in the least as a happy example to youth andinnocence. What was to have been expected on the evidence was thenomination, in loco parentis, of some proper third person,some respectable or at least some presentable friend. Apparently,