Elisabeth is the only child of doting parents, and has been surrounded by wealth and new possessions all her life. She has no career, only a life preparing her to be someone's wife. Her mother and father indulge her every wish, but she really doesn't have any wishes. She is like a sleepwalker, aimless and shadowy. She is awakened by meeting Bertrand, and he makes her think and use her wit and feel like a woman. Yet he refuses to intercede when Joachim asks for her hand, and Bertrand turns away, leaving for India soon thereafter. She and Joachim marry although their hearts belong to others, and stay together for the remainder of the novel. Elisabeth's character does not appear in the novel after Part One, although she is referred to occasionally by Major Von Pasenow in Part Three