Elizabeth

Elizabeth is in love with William Keller and he with her. She has just returned from Paris and has not yet slept in her own bed. But now she must go in side and be Miss Holland, not Lizzy. She has to hurry in quietly in the early morning hours so nobody will see her and report back to her mother because just the last night her mother told her to be careful and she was doing exactly the opposite of that. Will begs her to stay, but she tells him she will be back as soon as she can. It is Sunday and it is a day the Hollands leave open for visiters. In the parlor, Liousa Holland has something to tell her daughters that will forever change their lives. They are poor. When Mr. Holland died he left them with nothing. Elizabeth doesn't have a chance to recover when Teddy Cuttington arrives to call. Diana, sitting in the Persian corner of the room, is acting very strange for a girl who has just lost everything and is sent to her room after almost revealing their families secret to Mr. Cuttington. Teddy stays for the respectable time of one half hour and them tells the ladies good day. Shortly after an unexpected visitor arrives. Henry Schoonmaker. Elizabeth has no idea what he could be doing her, she hasn't seen him since before her coming out. She supposes she should be happy New York's most desired was at her house but she is not. Before she knows it she has asked him to go for a walk around Grimacy park and doesn't realize that she was supposed to have waited to be asked, but it is too late. Elizabeth holds her arm rigid so that Henry is barely touching her. She recounts her trans-atlantic story for him but he doesn't seem to care. "My father has planned a dinner party" (107) Elizabeth comments on how pretty it will be if Isabelle is planning and she is sure that the list if very exclusive. Henry laughs but stays silent, why is he being so silent if he came to visit me! "I'm sure you know what it's for"(107) she told him she didn't have any idea, "Oh well i suppose I should tell you that I would be very honored if you would be my wife.' Henry's lips curled around the word wife." 

Lina

Lina Broud is Elizabeth Holland's ladies maid, but Miss Elizabeth has been in Paris for the summer. Lina, Will and Elizabeth used to play together when they were younger and Lina's mother was the Holland's nannie and had not made differentiations between them.  Over the summer Lina has been spending a lot of time with Will Keller, the Holland's coachmen and they had grown very close. They have known each other since they were children, and Lina has been in love with him ever since then. They had grown so close over the summer, and the night Elizabeth is returning Lina is going to tell him, but he is distancing himself from her and she doesn't know why. He tells her she should be inside helping Misses Elizabeth and it is dangerous to be out in the stables now that she is home. "Not tonight. You can't be here tonight." (pg 64) She didn't understand what was different about tonight, it was the same as any other and she thought that it was part of the fun. The danger. On her way inside the servant's entrance when a figure wrapped in white silk hurried by her. It was Elizabeth Holland.  

Henry

"This is to certify that I, William Sackhouse Schoonmaker, do leave all my worldly possessions,as itemized below, including all holdings relating to business, real estate, and personal property, to..."(pg 44) This was Henry Schoolmakers fathers will. "Awful morbid, Dad, we left the party for this?" (pg 45) Henry Schoonmaker was a known ladies man, and everything in life to him was a party. Henry stared across the desk at his father and his step-mother, who was 25 only five years older than him. "So tell me about you and Miss Hayes" (pg 47) said Henry's father abruptly. Henry thought of Penelope, her gigantic eyes and her always dramatic red dress. She had the ability to frighten people but also seduce them at the same time. He wished he was back at the party pushing her body across the dance floor. "I very much enjoy her company."(pg 48) and his fathers next question caught him off guard. "So... do you want to marry her?"(pg 48) He told his father that he had not yet met a women he would think about so seriously, because he didn't take life seriously. William Schoonmaker told him that was a good thing and that he wanted Henry to find someone that would be a "good wife." His father already had someone in mind for his son. Someone with class and sophistication and good family. His father had suddenly taken interest in his son's social life because he was planning to run for office. The girl he had in mind was Elizabeth Holland.