Anne Welles

Anne Welles is a small-town girl who makes it big in New York City. She is the only child of a well-off family in Lawrenceville, Massachusetts. Her father died when she was a young adolescent, and she has a cold relationship with her mother and her aunt. Anne finds Lawrenceville stifling and repressive. Everyone in town knows everyone else's history, and gossip is rampant. Anne does not believe she can make her own choices there and leaves before she is trapped by the life everyone expects her to have (specifically to marry Willie Henderson and raise a family there).

Anne has an Ivy League college education and a polished, reserved manner. She has classic good looks, with blond hair, blue eyes, and a natural style. She arrives in New York with five thousand dollars, but prefers to work rather than live off of her savings. She eventually...