what role does Lena Lingard play in my Antonia?

Lena Lingard is one of the "hired girls"‹immigrant girls who work for wages in Black Hawk‹Lena has a bad reputation when she is growing up. Jim dates her for awhile during college, and afterwards Lena becomes a very successful dressmaker and moves to San Francisco. Antonia, on the other hand stays in the country in domestic life. Check this out,

http://voices.yahoo.com/my-antonia-analyzing-antonia-shimerda-lena-lingard-26473.html