Leonella

Leonella moves through Madrid society as Antonia's guardian and self-appointed social manager, forever angling for advantageous introductions and fretting over her own faded charms. Her harmless self-absorption and love of gossip place her in stark contrast to the sheltered Antonia, whose modesty she half-envies and half-exploits. When predatory attention begins circling her niece, Leonella's complacency and hunger for status leave Antonia dangerously unguarded, quietly enabling the novel's central crisis.