“But the sight of the young man turning in at Miss Hatchard’s gate had brought back the vision of the glittering streets of Nettleton, and she felt ashamed of her old sun-hat, and sick of North Dormer, and jealously aware of Annabelle Balch, of Springfield, opening her blue eyes somewhere far off on glories greater than the glories of Nettleton.”

Charity is depicted from the outset as dissatisfied with her physical and emotional environments. Despite constant reminders that she should be appreciative of having been brought to North Dormer to be raised by Lawyer Royall, she is plagued by an inner sense of psychological isolation and bitterness. She compares her town of North Dormer to the glorious memories of her sole childhood trip to the larger town of Nettleton and is apparently convinced that her life would be better there. Even the dark color of her eyes and the condition of her sun-hat pale by her comparison to the blue-eyed young woman, Annabelle Balch, who Charity has observed visiting her neighbor, Miss Hatchard. 

“It wasn’t the temptations of Starkfield that had been Mr. Royall’s undoing; it was the thought of losing her.”

Lawyer Royall’s wife dies when Charity is still a girl, and Miss Hatchard recommends that the child be sent away to Starkfield, a boarding school. Mr. Royall returns from his visit to the school in terrible humor and advises Charity that she will not be enrolled in the school. She intuits that her unofficial adoptive father is not willing to experience the emotional isolation that would be caused by her departure from his house. The young woman is ambivalent in her reaction.