The older daughter of the Reverend Michael Millward and sister of Eliza Millward, Mary tended her mother in her final years. Stouter and less graceful than Eliza, it is initially Gilbert’s perception that Mary is beloved by her father, old people, and children, and unvalued by everyone else. Gilbert discovers his error when, at the close of the novel, she marries Richard Wilson, with whom she had been secretly engaged for some time.