Carnegie's Maid

Mrs. Carnegie is the shrewd, ambitious mother of Andrew. She is short and heavy-set with piercing dark eyes that miss nothing. In her early years, she struggled to provide for her family in the midst of grinding poverty. As a result, she is determined to see the Carnegies succeed in America at all costs. She takes an active interest in the family’s investments, and Andrew frequently seeks her advice on these matters.

Mrs. Carnegie is also ambitious to be accepted by the upper-class ladies in her social set. She hires Clara because she needs an experienced lady’s maid to teach her the proper behavior of the wealthy. Although she is frugal by nature, Mrs. Carnegie enjoys displaying her family’s wealth and flaunting her power over the household staff. She is especially possessive of her elder son because the family’s fortunes are dependent on Andrew’s success. When she realizes that her son has grown fond of her maid, she breaks up the relationship and sends Clara packing. Her son does not marry until after she passes away decades later.

At the beginning of the novel, Andrew is a 29-year-old railroad executive. He is red-haired, short, and possesses a jovial personality. He is also an astute investor who buys and merges companies, thus increasing his wealth. Andrew’s behavior fluctuates between benign good humor and hard-nosed business tactics. He is determined to win every battle he undertakes. This sometimes causes him to indulge in questionable behavior to gain his ends, though he fails to see the inconsistency between his ethics and his profits.

Because Andrew is so farsighted, he rarely finds anyone who is his intellectual match. Clara captivates him because she can find solutions to his business problems that elude the experts he hires. For his part, Andrew helps Clara understand the business world, and she brings him insider knowledge gleaned from the gossip she overhears. Andrew is determined to marry Clara and won’t let anything stand in his way until a rift develops between them. One of Andrew’s company mergers puts Clara’s cousin out of work, and she points out the selfish greed that helped to make the Carnegie family’s fortune. Andrew never learns that his mother forced Clara to leave, so he assumes she was repulsed by his avarice. Vowing to make amends, Andrew devotes the rest of his life to charitable activities and establishes public libraries all over the country in an attempt to redeem himself in Clara’s eyes.

Mr. Ford is a large, middle-aged Black man who is the Carnegie family cook. He is the only member of the household staff who is friendly toward Clara. In earlier years, Ford was a runaway slave who fled the South with his wife and daughter. He was separated from them during his escape and now believes that he will never see them again. Clara intercedes with Andrew to have his friends in government try to find Ford’s missing family. Noting Clara’s growing involvement with Andrew, Ford advises her to keep her distance. When she needs to flee the house, he hides her from Andrew. Clara later learns that Ford was reunited with his family after the Civil War ended, and they are now free. He also repays Clara’s kindness by sending her a discarded letter that Andrew wrote to her, explaining his actions and hoping that she will learn that he changed for the better.

Eliza is Clara’s elder sister. Like her two younger siblings, she has received an education from her father that most would think unnecessary for a female. Although she should have been sent to America, it was agreed that Clara’s venturesome nature was better suited to the challenge of making a new life overseas. Eliza is Clara’s chief correspondent. Her letters keep Clara informed of the many tragedies that befall the members of the Kelley family who remained behind. By the end of the novel, Clara succeeds in bringing Eliza and their parents to America, where a better life awaits them.

Patrick is the second cousin of Clara’s mother. He has a hearty, cheerful disposition and works in a Pittsburgh iron foundry to support his wife, Maeve, and their five children. Even though the family’s lot is hard, Patrick doesn’t complain. When he loses his job because of a company merger, his misfortune causes Clara to confront Andrew about the consequences of his avarice and ambition. Patrick is indirectly responsible for Andrew’s change of heart. By the end of the novel, he and his family have prospered and bought a proper house of their own.

Mrs. Seeley is the rigid, humorless owner of an employment agency in Pittsburgh. She sources servants for the wealthiest families in the area, including the Carnegies. Because Mrs. Carnegie is unsatisfied with the last lady’s maid that Mrs. Seeley provided, she scrambles to make amends by sending Clara to her client, unaware that the girl is an imposter. By the end of the novel, Mrs. Carnegie hires Mrs. Seeley to investigate Clara’s background, and she exposes the ruse. As a result, Clara is fired from her position.

Miss Quinn is one of the two Irish girls who accompany Clara in a coach ride from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Miss Quinn was also hired by Mrs. Seeley to work as a tutor. She is repulsed by Clara’s filthy appearance when they first meet. Later in the book, Miss Quinn shows up at the Carnegie house in the role of nanny for one of the guest’s grandchildren. When she meets Clara again, she is surprised and impressed by the change in her travel companion. By comparison, Miss Quinn has been demoted from the job of tutor to that of nanny.

Miss Atkinson is the unmarried daughter of a wealthy doctor who is a neighbor of the Carnegies. She seems intent on capturing the interest of Andrew as a marriage prospect, but he is unaware of her designs. When she sees him out walking with Clara, she treats the girl rudely. Later, she sees Clara in a local park and carries this information to Mrs. Carnegie. Sensing the attachment between Andrew and Clara, Miss Atkinson wants to disrupt their romance, but her stratagems all fail.