Marya Gerasimovna

A small, tidy old governess of about seventy, once part of the narrator's father's large household, now its only surviving member besides the narrator himself. She sits in the drawing room reading, offers the narrator brief, resigned commentary on his troubles ('What would you have, Pasha? I said before that this is how it would be'), and it is her passing suggestion, early in the story, that prompts the narrator to invite Ivan Ivanitch Bragin for advice.