In which Maisie, encountering her stepmother Mrs Beale in a moment suffused with warmth and renewed affection, discovers a new and hopeful companionship that reshapes her sense of the world and those around her. The episode delicately traces the unfolding of plans and tender intimacies between Maisie, Mrs Beale, and Sir Claude, all poised beneath the genteel but shifting social atmosphere that surrounds the child’s life.