The short story begins with three brothers and one sister around a table, they just received word from the mail that all their fortunes were gone. The protagonist in this story is Mable. She is described as a loner, a rather short, sullen-looking woman of twenty seven. It also says that “she would have been good-looking, save for the impressive fixity of her face, 'bull-dog', as her brothers called it.” They seem to be trying to figure out what they can do with their lives now that their fortunes are gone. Her brothers can go off and make their own way in the world, but Mabel has nowhere to go. She could go live with a sister, become a servant or as her brother Malcolm suggested become a nurse, none of these options are acceptable to her.
Joe Pervin is thirty three, the oldest of the brothers. He expects to get a job with the steward of a neighboring estate after he marries the steward's daughter. Fred Henry Pervin is the second oldest brother and Malcolm the youngest. Another character in this story is Jack Ferguson, he is the antagonist in this story, he is a doctor, he enters in the story and he and the brothers talk about his cold and about the moving of the brothers.
The father was Joseph Pervin, he was not an educated man however he had became a fairly large horse dealer. Back then the stables had been full of horses, and business was good. Now that he was dead everything was gone, and there was nothing but debt.
Mabel seemed to have suffered from depression; she made up her mind to end her life the way she wants to and not by anyone else’s choice. She thinks to herself, “she will always hold the keys of he own situation” and goes on to describe how she won’t have to worry about what others are thinking when she is walking the streets or shopping for cheaper foods. Lawrence goes on to say, “She thought of nobody, not even herself. Mindless and persistent, she seemed in a sort of ecstasy to be coming nearer to her fulfillment, her own