When we first meet Christine Callaghan, she hangs on Bertrand's arm and listen on his every word, laughs at his jokes, and acts the part of his prim and prissy wife- to-be. Despite the facade of false maturity, Christine's sense of humor and genuineness show through. Her unremorseful attitude toward eating, as well as her unmusical laugh, make Christine seem less artificial than Margaret. When Christine finally opens up to Dixon, we learn that she is unhappy with Bertrand, but has been unhappy in all her relationships with men. We discover that she is quite young, and not as omniscient as she first appeared. Christine is actually quite shy, and it takes her several minutes and some prodding in her initial conversations with Dixon to become comfortable enough to reveal her genuine self.
Christine is quite nice, yet she also dislikes all the right people, such as Evan Johns and Mrs. Welch. Christine's niceness and sense of propriety lead her to stay with Bertrand, hoping for the best and giving him the benefit of the doubt even though she suspects that there is history between Bertrand and Carol Goldsmith. Perhaps due to her unsuccessful love life, Christine has a tendency to evaluate her feelings objectively, trying to make a calculated decision about her future rather than succumbing to urges. Christine has the potential to be downright cold when she takes her objective thinking too far. Christine doesn't seem to experience much character change over the course of the novel and, in fact, hardly appears in the final chapters.
