Maisie Dobbs

Maisie begins her new life in the Compton home, anxious but resigned. Her roommate, Enid, adopts a knowing air of support for the younger girl. Maisie is introduced to the household, and Lady Rowan is struck by her blue eyes and air of keen observation.

Maisie’s main job begins at four in the morning with sweeping out the fireplace and starting fires in the house’s main rooms before the aristocratic occupants are awake. She lives for her half-day of free time on Sundays, which she spends with her father and his horse, Persephone. She assures her father she is still reading books whenever she can. She shares her observations of the household, noticing that Enid is friendly but also easy to anger. She suspects that Enid has a secret affection for the Comptons’ son. Frankie is relieved his daughter is safe and cared for, feeling as though “it was all getting easier” (85).

Maisie is fascinated by the house’s massive library and resolves to rise at three in the morning to have time to visit it before her work begins. Maisie reflects that Enid will not notice, as she is likely spending secret time with James Compton in the late hours. Maisie begins her library sojourns, realizing that “she needed this sustenance assuredly as her body needed its fuel” (87). She begins reading a major work by Scottish philosopher David Hume and stops to take notes before resuming her required tasks.

One evening, Maisie rises at two thirty, unaware that the Comptons are still awake. Lady Rowan goes to the library and comes upon Maisie reading. Maisie, horrified and certain she will lose her job, reluctantly explains she has been trying to learn Latin. Astonished, Lady Rowan asks Maisie about her reading and how she chooses titles. Lady Rowan informs Maisie that she will speak with Carter, intensifying the young girl’s fears about her job.

Still in torment over being discovered, Maisie is summoned by Carter and told that she will meet with the Comptons and a colleague of theirs later that day. Maisie is still frightened when she arrives for the meeting. Lady Rowan introduces her to Maurice, and she is stuck by his ordinary appearance, even as “he looked right through her” (96). Lady Rowan and Carter watch from a distance as Maurice informally tests Maisie’s knowledge and interests. Lady Rowan watches with interest as she feels Maisie may be part of her mission to advance equity, counter to the rigid structures of Britain’s class system. Carter, for his part, senses that the meeting also signifies social upheaval. Lady Rowan tells her that she can be privately tutored by Maurice twice monthly, provided her work remains satisfactory. Stunned, Maisie agrees.

That night, Enid, aware of the situation, suggests that Lady Rowan’s plan has a hidden scheme: As a wealthy woman, Lady Rowan could send Maisie to school, but such institutions would not welcome her. Private tutoring is a kind of compromise. Enid reflects that in Britain, “There is no middle […] [P]eople like you and me, Dobbsie, we’ve got to jump. And bloody ’igh, to boot!” (98). Maisie agrees but decides it is worth the risk to nurture her great passion for books and learning. She tries to ask Enid about her evening, but the other girl remains secretive. That night, Maisie dreams of Enid, filled with inexplicable dread.

Maisie begins her new schedule of work and lessons. Lord Julian supports her efforts more out of respect for Maurice than from any certainty that Maisie can truly succeed. The other servants are similarly skeptical, though the butler defends the experiment.

The timeline moves forward 18 months, and Maisie is well accustomed to reading and analyzing complex texts. She regularly visits her father, spending each Sunday with him doing chores in the stable and making much of his horse. Frankie is anxious when Maisie describes her new ambition to attend Girton College, Cambridge’s college for women, as it will require both funds and moving into a new social sphere.

Maurice takes Maisie on what he calls “field work” (108), introducing her to friends and colleagues. One, notably, is a scholar from Sri Lanka, Khan, who has devoted his life to study and meditation, first in Oxford and then in South Asia. The narrator reflects that Maisie will come to use her meditation skills to endure the challenges of wartime nursing.

Enid irritably tells Maisie to turn out the light rather than keep her up with the sound of turning pages and reading. Maisie senses Enid’s position is precarious, given her unsanctioned relationship with James Compton, but she is well liked in the house. Enid confesses that the Comptons are sending their son to Canada in an attempt to end his relationship with her. Maisie is still “frightened” by the sense of doom she feels around them and is tempted to share her feeling with Maurice.

James leaves for Canada, souring Enid’s mood. She accuses Maisie of neglecting her work. Carter comes close to reprimanding Maisie, reminding her that her studies will have to end if she cannot keep up with both aspects of her life.

The next day, Maisie is late meeting her father, sparking his ire and anxiety that she has no more time for him. He becomes more upset when she uses an expression he does not recognize. He is “tired of fearing that she would move into circles above her station and never come back” (116). Enid later suggests that Lady Rowan has no real concern for Maisie as a person. Instead, she is only concerned only with looking progressive. Maisie “was beginning to feel fully the challenges of following her dream” (118).

Maisie tells Maurice she must end her lessons, and he realizes at once that her crisis is over her role in the world and the household. He has another meeting with Lady Rowan, who offers Maisie a new job: a role as companion to her aging mother-in-law at the family’s country house, Chelstone Manor. There she will be able to both study and work under less scrutiny. As Maisie weighs the offer, Maurice makes his way “south of the Thames” (121), the narrator’s only clue that he is visiting Maisie’s father.

The next day, Frankie arrives unexpectedly, ostensibly to discuss his fresh wares, but he and Maisie also meet and talk. Frankie tells Maisie to go to Kent, as it is what he has always wanted for her.