The Main Characters

The protagonist, the main character is Miss Elsie Leeson. She is ‘a very little girl, with eyes and hair that had kept on growing after she had stopped’. It is a good natured woman, with her appearance people usually cheer up, she is extremely kind and tender. Miss Leeson is a typist; she is a poor little working girl and is looking for a place to live. She comes to Mrs. Parker, an elderly well-mannered lady, who rents her house. She is quite a wealthy woman and disdains the poor and those who had neglected to be trained up as a doctor or a dentist. She is proud of her house and wants high rent for her rooms. But those who cannot afford to pay for these rooms cannot expect to get Mrs. Parker’s attention.

Except these two characters we also meet the other roomers of Mrs. Parker’s house. They are Mr. Skidder (an unacknowledged playwright, who after meeting Miss Leeson chooses her for the start part in his new play), Mr. Hoover ,who was ‘forty-five, fat, flush and foolish’ and fell in love with the protagonist. Miss Longnecker, an extremely arrogant school teacher and Miss Dorn who worked in a department store. All the neighbours, except these two women did their best to attract Miss Leeson’s attention (and Mr. Hoover even proposed her). She charmed them all and won their appreciation immediately.

But despite the outside jolly, it was a tough time in the poor girl’s life. She had lost her job and has no money even for food. And when she faint because of starvation we meet another character - a young medico who takes care of Miss Leeson’s health. This very doctor is a man with a mystery which is not revealed till the end of the story.