Clark
The narrator of the story is Clark. As a child, he spent several years on Aunt Georgiana and Uncle Howard's homestead. At the time of the story, he is a young man studying in Boston. He cares deeply about his Aunt Georgiana and is sensitive to her emotional experience.
Aunt Georgiana
Aunt Georgiana is Clark's beloved aunt. As a young woman, she lived in Boston and taught music at the Boston Conservatory, an elite music school. One holiday in the Green Mountains, she met and fell in love with a village boy, Howard Carpenter. They eloped and settled on a homestead in Nebraska, where she lived out the next several decades without leaving. She strikes a pathetic, misshapen figure amid high society Boston, which she misses deeply.
Howard Carpenter
Howard Carpenter was originally a village boy in the Green Mountains of Vermont. When Aunt Georgiana met him during a vacation, she was ten years his senior. Nevertheless, they fell in love and eloped. Clark describes Howard as idle and not worth much.
Mrs. Springer
Mrs. Springer is the landlady of Clark's rooming house in Boston. Clark assumes she must be shocked by his aunt's appearance, but she simply welcomes his aunt and puts her to bed after a long journey.
