# If I Had a Father — Character guide

> Key figures in If I Had a Father by George MacDonald.

- [Mattie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/mattie.md): Mattie stitches buttonholes by lamplight in a garret where she and Susan stretch crusts and borrowed chops across the week, yet she refuses to let hunger push her toward the smooth-tongued men Susan dreams of. When a boy
- [Bill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/bill.md): Bill scrapes pennies from gentlemen's boots and squabbles with Jim and Jack over buns and ha'pennies, but he turns serious the moment anyone threatens Mattie, whom he calls a hangel and refuses to claim as his sister or 
- [Gervaise](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/gervaise.md): Gervaise leans on his servant William for friendship, confessing that if he had a father he would tell him everything, and that he dreams of a face he cannot quite see. He resolves to sail for India to find Sir Walter, h
- [Arthur](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/arthur.md): Arthur is the friend Warren would serve blindfold and the son Sir Walter has returned to save, yet he carries a secret that even his father feared was a bad one. He is bound up with Constance and with the old man searchi
- [Constance](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/constance.md): Constance moves between the Clifford household and the shabby rooms where Mattie works, accusing and being accused, her language as cutting as Susan's is loud. She is tied to Arthur, and the question of what she wants fr
- [James](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/james.md): Jim squabbles with Jack over a penny Mattie told them to divide, and calls her a brick and a hangel without a trace of mockery. He follows Bill's lead in the court and treats Mattie's kindness as something sacred, worth 
- [Mrs. Clifford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/mrs_clifford.md): Mrs. Clifford moves through the world certain of her own respectability, and her visit to Mattie's lodgings is meant to reclaim stolen linen and moral high ground alike. Instead she collides with Susan, whose loyalty to 
- [Thomas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/thomas.md): Thomas arrives in London speaking broad dialect and looking for a lost person, and his run-ins with the sharp-tongued Bill and the wary Colonel Gervaise mark him as a stranger in a strange land. He is dogged, suspicious 
- [Warren](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/warren.md): Warren moves through the studio and the streets as Gervaise's trusted ally, cautious with strangers and quick to defend his friend's name. When a disguised Sir Walter Gervaise asks for help, Warren refuses to act blindfo
- [Mr. Waterfield](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/mr_waterfield.md): Mr. Waterfield breezes into Gervaise's studio with the confidence of a man who assumes every door opens for him, praising the clay figure and pressing for a glimpse of the model. His easy manners and veiled insinuations 
- [Miss Pearson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/pearson.md): Miss Pearson stands at the edge of Mrs. Clifford's confrontation with Mattie, unwilling to join in the accusation and unable to stop it. Her reluctance to believe the worst of the poor girl sets her apart from her employ
- [Jack](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/jack.md): Jack trades jokes and pig stories with Bill and Jim on a Mayfair street corner, his patter a thin shield against the cold and the empty window of food. He is one of the play's chorus of poor children, sharp-witted and hu
- [Miss Lacordère](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/miss_lacordere.md): Known to her intimates as Mattie, she lives by her wits in a tenement where the rent is always a week behind and every polished stranger is a threat. She is fiercely protective of Susan, warning her that fine speeches an
- [Mo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/mo.md): A dialectal character, possibly a child or servant, with limited appearances.
- [Daddy Longlegs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters/daddy_longlegs.md): A character, possibly an elderly man or a nickname, with a small role.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/if_i_had_a_father_se/characters