A Lost Lady characters

Appears from the start

A boy of Sweet Water, Nebraska, who grows into an observant young man under Judge Pommeroy's care. He idealizes the Forresters and their gracious house, treating Marian Forrester as the embodiment of a more generous pioneer age.

Also known as Mrs. Forrester

Appears from the start

Captain Forrester's much younger wife, admired throughout Sweet Water for her beauty, animation, and gift for making visitors feel welcome. To Niel, she gives the Forrester place much of its enchantment.

Also known as Captain Forrester

Appears from the start

An aging railroad pioneer whose house outside Sweet Water once welcomed the men who opened the West. Courteous, honorable, and protective of his wife, he represents an older code of public responsibility.

Also known as Judge Pommeroy

Appears from the start

Niel's uncle and Sweet Water's elderly lawyer. A longtime friend of Captain Forrester, he shares the captain's courtly manners and loyalty to the social world formed by the early railroad builders.

Appears from the start

A calculating local boy whose cruelty toward a helpless bird immediately sets him apart from Niel and the other boys. Ambitious and unsentimental, he looks at land chiefly as something to exploit for profit.

First appears in chapter 3

A handsome, confident bachelor from the Forresters' wider social circle. He is a vigorous outdoorsman and polished guest whose ease and physical presence command attention when the old friends gather at the house.

First appears in chapter 3

The sheltered daughter of a wealthy visiting family and one of the younger guests at the Forrester house. Her conventional expectations and interest in Frank Ellinger place her beside Marian in a revealing social contrast.

Appears from the start

A German American boy from Sweet Water who knows the marsh and its wildlife well. Quiet and observant, he notices more of the adult world around the Forrester place than others suppose.