# Lucy Savile — Short Fiction character guide

> Lucy Savile in Short Fiction by Thomas Hardy.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Lucy, Savile

**First appearance:** 0002-destiny-and-a-blue-cloak

## Snapshot

Once the town's dark-haired beauty, now a widowed woman of forty-five whose quiet rectitude masks a life measured against a love she never quite buried.

## Who they are

Lucy Savile has become Lucy Downe's neighbor and the settled widow of a quiet town, her hair silvered and her mild eyes grown a little more stringent with years. When Barnet—the old friend everyone presumed dead—walks back into her drawing-room, she greets him with cheerful steadiness, but the scene hums with the long arithmetic of what each of them chose. Her composure and her unspoken history make her the mirror in which the story's returning wanderer must see himself.

## In the story

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/ii)

Lucy is visited by Barnet at her cottage; she is reserved and half-proud, painting flower outlines by candlelight to earn money, and she urges Barnet to make peace with his wife.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/iv)

Seen gathering flowers in her garden; exchanges a brief, awkward greeting with Barnet as he passes.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/v)

Her house and chimney smoke become a focal point of Barnet's longing and moral conflict.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/vi)

Proposed as a governess for Downe's children; meets Barnet by the shore and rejects his help, considering going to India.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/vii)

Lucy is the governess for the Downe children, and she becomes a regular presence near the new house, eventually thanking Barnet for his role in securing her position.

### [Chapter VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/viii)

Marries Downe in a private ceremony; had previously planned to go to India.

### [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/ix)

Now a widow, she has waited years for Barnet's return, but declines his marriage proposal.

### [XVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/xvii)

Not present in this chapter.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/lucy_savile
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters