"Did I see the soul of the one I loved when I saw Perry, not his body?"
At the birthday party after the spectacular entrance of Perry, Dora is stunned to see that this hundred year old man hasn't aged a bit; he is still the same red haired mischievous man from before, only much larger. He approaches her lovingly and compliments her looks. Dora is about to remind him of her wrinkles and grey hair but, she stops herself. She wonders if Perry sees her and Nora the same way they see him; wonders if she can't really see the change from age on him because she loves him and only sees his soul. It turns out that this same soul was her lover throughout the years.
"Not that he'd said anything. Not that anything had changed. But we'd had a bit of love."
Melchior finally gives attention to his two legitimate daughters; he finally gives them a bit of love on his hundredth birthday. It is questionable whether this change of heart came from realization that his other two daughters aren't actually his, or if it was a show for the press. Nevertheless, the twin sisters are glad to finally have a fatherly moment they long for all those years.
"I may never have known my father in the sense of an intimate acquaintance, but I knew who he was. I was a wise child, wasn't I?"
It is the one moment in the novel with an allusion to the title. The paradox of the phrase "wise child" could be seen as an emphasis to the ridiculousness of the novel, it could also be seen as Dora, being an old lady at the moment, always remained a child when it comes to her father. It could be seen as an ironic remark to the fact that the Chance sisters never really had a parent-child bond with their real father, but at least they knew who he was, at least they could point a finger in his direction.
