CHAPTER VIII
In Which the Heroine makes the First Use of Her Latchkey
It was about this time that Philomène first began to remark a change in her father. He was not at any time a man of many words, but he now became unusually silent even for him. He was not unkind to his little girl, but he saw less of her, and gave her only half his attention when she spoke to him. She suffered acutely from his altered manner, but was far too loyal to confide her trouble to either of her fairy friends, let alone to Nurse or Miss Mills. Once when writing to her godmother, who was abroad at the time, she put at the end of the letter; “P.S.—I wish I had a mother.” But she had no very clear idea as to how a mother would have mended matters, and Isolde in her answer did not refer to the postscript.
It was i
