Character guide

Kirk Winfield

major

Also known as Mr. Winfield, Mr. Kirk Winfield, Kirk, Winfield

Kirk Winfield fills his own doorway — boyish, friendly, magnificently fit — and paints in a Greenwich Village studio kept in order by his accident-prone man George Pennicut. He is unhurried and unambitious, content to let the days drift, which makes him an easy mark for stronger wills and a puzzle to the Bannister family's expectations. His courtship of Ruth Bannister turns a bohemian idler into a man with something to lose, and the collision between his world and hers drives the novel's central struggle.

Ruth Bannister

major

Also known as Ruth, Bannister, Miss Ruth, Ruth Winfield

Ruth Bannister is the beautiful, self-possessed daughter of old John Bannister, raised on Fifth Avenue under the fussy guardianship of her brother Bailey. She listens pleasantly to her aunt's hygienic theories, smiles, and ignores them — a habit that infuriates anyone accustomed to obedience. Her determination to choose her own life, and the family resistance it provokes, sets the marriage plot in motion and tests whether love can survive the collision of two very different worlds.

Steve Dingle

major

Also known as Steve, Mr. Steve Dingle, Dingle, Mr. Dingle

Steve Dingle is Kirk's loyal, resourceful friend — a man whose fists once did the talking and whose awkward tenderness now does the plotting. He steals a baby to give Kirk a day alone with his son, cooks an extravagant supper in celebration, and turns to fire when anyone insults Mamie, the mouselike nurse he has adored for three years without managing to propose. His mixture of muscle, mischief, and shy devotion makes him the story's warmest engine, pushing Kirk toward the life he keeps failing to seize.

Mrs. Lora Delane Porter

major

Also known as Mrs. Porter, Lora Delane Porter, Fate, Lora, Porter

Mrs. Lora Delane Porter is a masterful woman with well-defined views upon man, physical fitness as her gospel, and a stare that makes grown men feel like purse-snatchers. She examines strangers, lectures relatives, and treats Ruth's household as territory to be governed — until Ruth's pleasant smile-and-ignore treatment leaves her unexpectedly powerless. Her gradual defection from the family circle marks the novel's shift from courtship comedy to the harder question of who actually gets to raise a child.

Bailey Bannister

supporting

Also known as Bailey, Bannister, Brother Bailey, Mr. Bailey, old man Bannister

Bailey Bannister is twenty-seven, faultlessly dressed, gold-rimmed, and convinced that Wall Street awaits only his father's permission to be astonished. With their mother dead and old Mr. Bannister absorbed in the firm, Bailey appoints himself Ruth's guardian and gallops up Fifth Avenue to forbid her marriage to a man he has never met. His self-important interference — and his instinctive retreat when Kirk looms up in a sleeveless vest — supplies the novel's sharpest social comedy and its clearest portrait of respectable obstruction.

Mamie

supporting

Also known as the silent Mamie

Mamie is the daughter of a newspaper compositor, hired on Steve's recommendation after raising three small brothers to office-boy age without mishap. She moves neatly through the studio, wins the baby at once, and fixes Steve with a baleful stare when she suspects him of letting the child fight. Her presence steadies the household through its turbulent years, and Steve's long-unspoken love for her gives the novel one of its gentlest, most patiently drawn threads.

William Bannister Winfield

supporting

Also known as William, The White Hope, William Bannister, Winfield

As the only child of Kirk and Ruth Winfield, William Bannister sits at the center of a quiet custody war being waged over his upbringing by well-meaning adults. He is a determined, cheerful presence who insists on bringing his own baggage — literal and otherwise — wherever he goes, and his stubbornness makes him a small but immovable force. His alliance with the butler Keggs and his fondness for Steve Dingle quietly shape the household's loyalties, and his fate becomes the hinge on which the family's future turns.

Twentieth-Century Willie

supporting

Also known as Bill, Freddie, Billy

Lora Delane Porter is a formidable authoress and amateur philosopher whose driving is as aggressive as her opinions on heredity and child-rearing. When she accidentally runs down George Pennicut, the collision sets off a chain of events that draws her into the Winfield household and gives her an alarming degree of influence over young William's education. Her confident theories and utter lack of self-doubt make her both comic and quietly menacing, and her presence in the family's life becomes one of the story's central irritants.

Mr. Penway

supporting

Also known as Penway

Mr. Penway drifts through Kirk's Bohemian household with the ease of a man who has no other address, cadging drinks, dodging responsibilities, and offering commentary no one requested. He is a parasite of the pleasantest sort, and his presence underscores just how loose and undemanding Kirk's bachelor life has become. When crisis arrives — Steve's abduction of the boy, Mamie's frantic visit — Penway is shooed outside to commune with nature, a comic reminder of the world that is about to be left behind.

Keggs

minor

Also known as Mr. Keggs

The Bannister family butler, loyal and discreet.

Percy Shanklyn

supporting

Also known as Percy, Perce

Percy Shanklyn belongs to the impecunious Bohemian crowd that treats Kirk Winfield's studio as a free hotel, and his suave, self-satisfied presence is a quiet irritant in Kirk's otherwise easygoing world. He represents the kind of polished, useless charm that Kirk instinctively distrusts, and his attentions to Ruth — however unwelcome — mark him as a minor but persistent rival. His role in the early arc helps define Kirk's character by contrast: the honest, generous artist versus the smooth, calculating idler.

John Bannister

minor

Also known as old Mr. Bannister, old John Bannister, Mr. Bannister, Mr. John Bannister

Ruth's elderly, ailing grandfather with old-fashioned values.

George Pennicut

minor

Also known as George, Pennicut

A local tradesman who interacts with the main characters.

Hank Jardine

minor

Also known as Hank, old Hank, Poor old Hank

A rough but good-hearted friend of Steve Dingle.

Sybil Wilbur

minor

Also known as Sybil, poor Sybil, Sybil Bannister

A friend of Ruth who marries into the Bannister family.

Aunt Lora

minor

Also known as Lora, your Aunt Lora

Ruth's aunt, a kind but meddling relative.

Basil Milbank

minor

Also known as Basil, the gifted Basil, Milbank

An artist and friend of the family with a romantic interest in Sybil.

Grayling

minor

Also known as Clarence Grayling, Clarence

A minor acquaintance who appears in social gatherings.

Robert Dwight Penway

minor

Also known as Robert

Mr. Penway's son, a young man with his own ambitions.

Kid Mitchell

minor

Also known as this Kid Mitchell

A young boxer or streetwise character encountered by Steve.

Mrs. Winfield

minor

Also known as Mrs. Kirk Winfield

Kirk's mother, a traditional woman concerned with family reputation.

Miss Wilbur

minor

Sybil's mother, a socialite concerned with propriety.

Tom Whiting

minor

Also known as Whiting, the gink Whiting

A minor character who causes trouble for the protagonists.

Miss Freda Reece

minor

Also known as Miss Reece, Freda

A woman who briefly catches the attention of one of the men.

Mike

minor

A servant or worker in the Bannister household.

Miss Hilda Vince

minor

Also known as Miss Vince, Hilda Vince

A friend of Ruth's from society circles.

Dana Ferris

minor

Also known as mutt Dana Ferris, Ferris

A minor antagonist who clashes with Kirk.

Willis

minor

Also known as Master William

A young boy who plays with William Winfield.

Mr. Meadows

minor

Also known as A Mr. Meadows

A business associate of Bailey Bannister.

Brother Jim

minor

Also known as Jim

A relative of one of the main characters, mentioned in passing.

Jack

minor

Also known as Fighting Jack

A minor character known for his pugnacious nature.

Mr. Mason

minor

A neighbor or acquaintance of the Winfield family.

Brock Mason

minor

A young man who appears briefly in social scenes.