In the middle of Volume II, chapter II, Robert Audley asks little Georgey if he would like to go to school. Georgey responds, \u201cOh, yes, please, I should like it very much. I went to school at Miss Pevin\u2019s once- day-school, you know \u2013 round the corner in the next street, but I caught the measles, and granpa wouldn\u2019t let me play with the little boys in the street, because they\u2019re rude boys; he said blackguard boys; but he said I mustn\u2019t say blackguard boys, because its naughty.\u201d Georgey repeats \u201cbecause\u201d many times as if reciting his grandpa\u2019s words verbatim. This passage shows that Georgey has a great memory, is very perceptive and an even better listener. Georgey\u2019s mental development becomes crucial again to the mystery of the \u201cnice lady\u201d later in this chapter. Georgey is able to remember specific details that are crucial to Robert\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n
I was initially confused with the use of the word \u201cblackguard boys.\u201d After researching the term, I found it was an adjective used to describe homeless orphans, runaways, or scoundrels (Wikipedia). This is an interesting coincidence because technically Georgey is an orphan as well. He lives with his grandfather but has a deceased mother and a missing father. To me, it seems like Mr. Maldon is hiding Georgey because he knows too much about their secret. Keeping Georgey in school is risky because children can\u2019t be expected to keep secrets. Mrs. Plowson tries to keep Georgey away from Robert and will not leave him in the room alone with him for long. When Georgey tries to talk to Robert, Mrs. Plowson signals to Georgey to stop as if she knows it\u2019s a secret. It is obvious Georgey could be a huge help in the mystery of his mother\u2019s death and his father\u2019s disappearance which is probably why Mr. Maldon keeps him from the public.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Mr. Maldon\u2019s motive for keeping Georgey from school could be health related. We know that he had the measles, which is a serious disease and we also know that Georgey has been to many children\u2019s funerals. This connects to the \u201cage of doubt\u201d section we discussed in class. Mr. Maldon appears to live in poverty with probably bad sanitation. We also know that Helen Talboys became very ill and allegedly died from her sickness. It made me wonder if she got sick because of caring for Georgey and that\u2019s why she was crying all the time. Regardless, Mr. Maldon\u2019s neighborhood appears to be full of sickness and misfortune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the middle of Volume II, chapter II, Robert Audley asks little Georgey if he would like to go to school. Georgey responds, \u201cOh, yes, please, I should like it very much. I went to school at Miss Pevin\u2019s once- day-school, you know \u2013 round the corner in the next street, but I caught the … Continue reading Little Georgey Knows More than he Says<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2026,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2026"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}