About this story
Your father's governess, Miss Overmore, is the first adult who treats you as a person rather than a messenger, until your mother dismisses her. At your mother's house a new governess, Mrs Wix, refuses to relay one more unkind word through you, and the chapter ends with news that rearranges the household again: your father has married Miss Overmore.
How it opens
Adults said the court had divided you fairly, as though a child were divisible property.
ModdleSix months with your papa, then six with your mamma, and no making trouble.
Two trunks waited by the door while Ida Farange paced around the smaller one.
Ida FarangeTell your father I consider his victory the cheapest part of his character.
Must I remember it exactly?
Choose
I remember, but I do not want to carry it.
Please write it down if Papa needs to read it.
Will Papa send an answer for me to bring home?