Mrs. Chichester: Cloistered up in her values of position and social standing, Mrs. Chichester is the insensitive aunt to whom Peg is sent for her “training” and education. She finds Peg to be far beneath her and would not have taken her in at all were it not for the money she will receive in return. Her fortune has recently been lost as a result of a bank failure.
**Alaric:**Mrs. Chichester’s spoiled and overindulged son, Alaric finds Peg to be barely tolerable, although there are times when he can at least be civil to her. After all, putting up with Peg is better than the prospect of going to work.
Ethel: The haughty, unhappy daughter of Mrs. Chichester, Ethel too dislikes Peg, largely because she resents the fact that Peg’s presence makes possible the maintenance of the Chichester lifestyle. She simply doesn’t know how to be anything but unpleasant. Christian Brent may be her only way out of all of this misery, she thinks.
Montgomery Hawkes: The solicitor who brings Peg from America to the Chichester household, Montgomery Hawkes explains the terms of Mrs. Chichester’s brother’s will, which leaves a vast fortune in prospect for Peg, assuming certain conditions can be met.
Christian Brent: A shallow man with a wife and a small child, Christian Brent devotes his attentions to wooing Ethel in an attempt to convince her to run away with him. His attentions become diverted to Peg as well, when she appears on the scene.
Jarvis: The stuffy servant of the Chichester household.
Bennett: A servant in the Chichester household.
Jerry (Sir Gerald Adair): A friend of the Chichester family, Jerry immediately finds Peg to be charming and refreshingly honest and becomes her friend. He is a man who is much more than he seems to be, as Peg eventually learns.
Peg (Margaret O’Connell): The eighteen-year-old daughter of a poor Irish laborer whom she dearly loves and a mother who was disowned by her family for marrying whom she did, Peg has an uncle who repents of the way he has treated his sister and leaves his fortune to Peg under certain conditions. Peg is witty, brash, and honest. She detests the pretenses of the upper class and vows never to become like them. She is unaware of the fortune left to her and the circumstances of her being sent to the Chichesters. She tries to teach them kindness and tolerance in return for their cold and shameful treatment of her.
