# Belle — Lavengro character guide

> Belle in Lavengro by George Borrow.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Nanny, Ann Perfrement, Anna, Hannah, Isabella, Belle Berners

**First appearance:** 0004-i

## Snapshot

A sharp-tongued young woman who shares Lavengro's dingle and his Armenian verbs, giving as good as she gets and then some.

## Who they are

Belle keeps house in the dingle with Lavengro, boiling the kettle, waiting for him when he wanders, and refusing to be a passive pupil. She parries his grammar drills with dry warnings that it will all end ill, and her quiet sorrow when he speaks of hating cuts deeper than his lectures. Her stubborn, watchful presence gives the middle chapters their domestic gravity, a counterweight to his rootless philosophizing.

## In the story

### [The Sap-engro and the Gypsy Encounter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/v)

Not present in this chapter.

### [LXXXV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/lxxxv)

Tall girl who intervenes in the fight, coaches Lavengro, and asserts her independence.

### [LXXXVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/lxxxvi)

Isopel mentions Grey Moll, the Flaming Tinman's wife, describing her as true and faithful.

### [LXXXVIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/lxxxviii)

Mentioned indirectly as 'Grey Moll' who reported the fight to the landlord.

### [LXXXIX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/lxxxix)

Has prepared a tent and tea; expresses curiosity about Lavengro's visit and admiration for America; agrees to learn Armenian.

### [XC](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xc)

Openly distrusts the man in black, criticizes his demeanor, and refuses his polite gestures.

### [The Landlord's Desperate Scheme](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xcii)

Referred to as 'the young woman you keeps company with'; the intended opponent in the landlord's proposed fixed fight.

### [XCIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xciii)

Present during the visit, fetches water for the man in black's drink.

### [XCV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xcv)

Returns late from selling, tired from the heat. She resists Lavengro's Armenian lessons and takes shelter with him during the thunderstorm.

### [XCVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xcvi)

Assists the postillion after his fall, helps lift the chaise, and brings poles for leverage.

### [XCVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xcvii)

Sits by the fire with her long hair; she is moved by Lavengro's praise of her heroic nature and sobs, burying her face in her hands.

### [The Servant's Tale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/c)

Listener to the servant's tale, present in the dingle.

### [Chapter I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/i)

Prepares breakfast, assists with the wheel repair, and politely rebuffs the postillion's advance.

### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/ii)

Arrives at the dingle, unharnesses her donkey, and joins the narrator and the man in black.

### [Chapter III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/iii)

Expresses anger and impatience with the man in black, refusing to refill his glass and wishing he would leave.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/iv)

Belle is present in the dingle, angered by the man in black's suggestions that she become an abbess, and threatens to break his glass.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/v)

Informs Lavengro of the Gypsies' arrival and prepares for breakfast.

### [Chapter VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/vi)

Isopel Berners allows Mrs. Petulengro to braid her hair but later rejects the gypsy style, asserting her independence; she announces she will take a journey.

### [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xiii)

Mentioned as being silent and melancholy during breakfast before the narrator leaves the dingle.

### [XIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xiv)

Waiting for the narrator in the dingle, she becomes distressed during the Armenian lesson, weeps, and is offered a proposal to go to America together.

### [The Fair and the Departure](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xv)

Stays awake all night, bids Lavengro farewell at dawn, looks pale and cold.

### [XX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xx)

Mentioned as the niece of the landlord; she joins the farewell conversation, expressing concern for her uncle's spiritual and moral state.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/characters/belle
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lavengro_se/characters